Jada Pinkett Smith Brought Gabrielle Union to Tears Over Their Feud
Girls Trip actor Jada Pinkett Smith and Bring It On star Gabrielle Union might’ve spent the majority of their lives feuding with each other. After so many years passed, however, the two stars developed a new perspective on their rivalry.
Gabrielle Union couldn’t even remember why she feuded with Jada Pinkett Smith
Nowadays, it might be difficult to believe that Union and Pinkett Smith weren’t fond of each other. Union has even appeared on Pinkett Smith’s show Red Table Talk where the pair opened up about several sensitive topics. It turns out they spent years secretly disliking each other, although Union couldn’t really pinpoint why — so much so she wouldn’t have called what they had a “beef.”
“It was more of like, at some point in time which neither of us remembers, we created a slight,” she once said on The Angie Martinez Show. “Either I slighted her, or she slighted me, or it was real or imagined.”
Martinez would press on about what created this slight in the first place.
“I don’t even remember it, to be honest,” Union told her. “But it’s like, you know you create spaces for people to be around you that be like, ‘Jada don’t really mess with you like that.’ And I’m like, ‘Really, when…I missed that. Well, I don’t mess with her, either! And then 17 years go by, and that’s literally the whole thing.”
Union confided that she did cross paths with Pinkett Smith quite a few times during those 17 years. There are pictures of the two together around that time. Although they’ve never worked together, Union also collaborated with Pinkett Smith’s husband Will Smith on Bad Boys 2. The fact that they shared a room was one of the main reasons Union didn’t call what they had a beef. Still, they didn’t truly clear the air until years later. Afterward, Union would meditate on their decade-long rivalry. The introspection brought her to tears.
“There was a moment where I kind of cried,” Union said. “She has a new show, Red Table Talk, at her house. And I kind of just let it go. And not just for that moment with Jada, but for so many relationships that I would’ve probably considered failed relationships or friendships. That I just wasn’t mature enough or evolved enough or healed enough to just say, ‘What’s up?’”
What Jada Pinkett Smith has said about her feud with Gabrielle Union
According to Union, Pinkett Smith reached out to Union personally to resolve their conflict. Pinkett Smith’s feelings towards their rivalry weren’t too unlike Union’s. The Gotham star believed she was simply too immature at the time to handle their issues properly and responsibly. Thanks to Union, Pinkett Smith also realized how important it was for them to stick together as successful Black women in the film industry.
“I think who I was back then was a young, egotistical girl who basically was just like, ‘Okay, if she wants to have a problem with me, that’s fine, ’cause what difference does it make?’ And one of the points that Gab brought up is that it makes a big difference because, at the end of the day, there’s only a handful of us in this business,” she said on Red Table Talk (via People). “And I just think we grow older and we mature and we realize that we really can’t appreciate ourselves without appreciating other women.”
She also provided a few details about the words she told Union during their life-changing phone call.
“It felt so good on the phone with you to even just go, ‘Hey, I’m sorry that I didn’t even take the time to talk to you,’ you know?’ And then I had to just apologize and just thinking to myself, ‘Damn, Jada! That was some petty ass s***!’ But at the same time going, ‘Well, that’s where you were then. Thank God you’re someplace else now,’” she told Union personally.
