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During this week’s episode of Red Table Talk, the topic was about sex, and Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris and Willow’s experiences with it as young and older women. But the conversation also turned to how Jada went about talking about sex with sons Trey (from Will’s marriage to Sheree Fletcher) and Jaden. As someone who learned a lot about sex and self-pleasuring as a 9-year-old, she could tell when both boys had started to become sexually active.
“How about I knew when they both lost their virginity.” she said. “My intuition. I knew the night Jaden lost his virginity. And I had a moment with Trey in the kitchen where I looked at him and I was like, ‘You’ve had sex.’ And he ran into the bathroom. He was like, ‘Fine! Yes! I’ve had sex!’ He was embarrassed. I was like, ‘You don’t have to be embarrassed,’ but he was so embarrassed.”
The reason she could tell was because something about their energy had changed. It’s something she noticed not only with them, but also with Willow’s friends.
“It was like their innocence was gone,” she said. “I can always tell. You can just see the maturity.”
But maintaining innocence was something very important to Jada when it came to raising all of her children. And while some parents hold their daughters on tighter reins than their sons, in the Smith house, it was the opposite for Jaden and Willow. The star, for instance, wouldn’t allow Jaden to stay the night at anyone’s home because she knew far too many men who had found themselves sexually abused by the time they were young kids. These types of restrictions go against this belief that Will and Jada let their kids do whatever, whenever.
“You know how many men I know who’ve been raped? As young boys?” she asked Willow, who initially said men don’t go through the same things as women. “That’s why I was as protective of of Jaden as I was with you. He was not allowed to spend the night at anyone’s house, because I never underestimated that a boy child could be violated in the same way as a girl child.”
When Willow said she felt her mother had treated her differently, Jada made the case that, when she thought about it, the 17-year-old was actually allowed to do more than her brother.
“I did do a lot of things differently,” Jada said. “And let me tell you something else. You got to do a lot of things in this house that Jaden did not.”
