The Honest Advice Jada Pinkett Smith Once Gave Willow Smith About Marriage

Willow Smith may only be 20-years-old, but she is well-versed in how to run her own life. Since childhood, Smith and her brothers, Trey and Jaden, have been given immense freedom from their parents, and because of that, they were able to develop a sense of independence early on.

But while Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith trust their kids to make rational and wise choices in life, there’s one decision the Red Table Talk host is afraid of her daughter making — and that’s getting married way too young.

Jada Pinkett Smith gives Willow a lot of freedom

When it comes to her children, Pinkett Smith doesn’t believe in overly sheltering them from the real world.

Instead, the actor is all for giving her kids — especially Willow — as much freedom as possible because having them know how to be independent is something she and Will Smith have worked hard to ensure.

While giving her kids freedom is likely how she’s been able to maintain such a strong bond with them all these years, it turns out that there’s a method to the Jason’s Lyric actor’s philosophy, which she revealed during an interview with Hoda Kotb back in 2017.

While appearing on the Kotb’s SiriusXM show, The Hoda Show, Pinkett Smith explained why she gives her daughter Willow so much freedom, noting that she doesn’t want the “Whip My Hair” singer to get out into the real world and have no idea what she’s doing.

“I want her to live as she will live when she’s outside of my house so that I can help guide that,” she said. “I don’t want her to leave my house and not have training on what it is to feel like to be independent.”

Smith has a strong opinion on specific aspects of her daughter’s love life

Though Pinkett-Smith allows Willow to make her own choices in life, she still tries to offer the singer guidance — especially when it comes to the idea of marriage.

Since she was only 25-years-old when she married Will Smith in 1997, Pinkett Smith realized early on she was way too young to tie the knot.

Although she and the Bad Boys actor have been married for more than two decades, Pinkett Smith hopes that her daughter won’t follow in her footsteps and settle down too early. She even told Kotb that if Willow were to bring up the topic of marriage anytime soon, she will have some pretty honest — and blunt — advice for young singer.

“Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” she said.

The actor said, but quickly followed up her answer by noting that she would put her advice a little more delicately. 

“I’d have to be very careful if she fell in love when I fell in love and had a possibility of getting married,” Pinkett Smith explained to Kotb. “I would just talk to her, you know? And just say ‘Hey, look at this, you know? There’s no rush and there’s a lot of life to live.'”

She continued, “Everything happens for a reason, and God knows better than me. This was all meant to happen exactly how it is. All of it.”

Let’s hope for Jada’s sake that Willow holds off on getting married for a while.