Jada Pinkett Smith: Age Gave Her the Gift of Finding Happiness in Her Life
Jada Pinkett Smith discovered how age provided the gift of perspective and allowed her to find true happiness in her life. The only problem? She said it took her 47 years to get to that point. Better late than never.
How old is Jada Pinkett Smith?
Pinkett Smith will turn 50 years old on Sept. 18, 2021. The actor has aged gracefully over the course of her successful career but admitted in the past that she faced some big mental health challenges along the way.
When discussing mental health during a 2018 Red Table Talk episode, Pinkett Smith shared how she was “severely depressed” in the early days of her career. Neither medication nor therapy proved to be effective for her.
“Once I got off the Prozac, I went on a long, long, long journey,” Pinkett Smith explained. “I learned how to manage it to a certain degree but it was a struggle.”
The actor continued, “I just had to find my path, which is why it probably took as long as it did. Now, thankfully, I don’t get depressed. I also think that I had to uproot some false beliefs.”
“I had to just let go and just come to terms with just what life is,” Pinkett Smith added.
How Jada Pinkett Smith’s age played a part in finding happiness
During a 2019 Red Table Talk discussion, Pinkett Smith shared that it took her a lot of time to get to a place where she truly felt happy in her relationships and with her life.
Will Smith and Jada have been married since 1997 but she found there was a journey to navigate to eventually land at a place of happiness. “At the end of the day, to know that you have another person that can love you for all that you are … Will has loved me through the worst of myself,” Pinkett Smith explained. “And I have done the same. When somebody can love you in that way, it makes your faith in the world come together.”
“I am 47-years-old and I want you to know, that this is probably the first year of my life that I can say, ‘I am happy,’ because that’s how long the journey has been,” she added.
She made a life-changing shift
Pinkett Smith was asked more about that statement during a 2019 interview on The Late Show, when host Stephen Colbert asked, “Why did it take so long and what did you mean by that?”
Pinkett Smith shared how she gained a better understanding of what happiness really is and once she was able to make that shift, it made all the difference.
“I really thought happiness had a lot to do with pleasure and I realized that happiness is about peace,” the actor explained. “I am the most peaceful I’ve ever been in my life, so I am the happiest.”
