Hands down, Will and Madame Jada Smith have one of the best celebrity/public-eye families I’ve ever seen. These superstar parents have managed to stay together and thrive while raising three kids: Trey (Will’s son with ex-wife Madame Sheree Zampino), 17; Jaden, 11; and Willow, 8. Smart, supportive, fun, proud, talented and most of all, they are a team. So how do they do it? The entire Smith crew took to Madame Oprah Winfrey’s couch recently and spilled the beans on how they keep their blended family together — Sheree and her current husband were even in the audience — and keep fame in perspective: they had a vision and stick to it.
Jada and Sheree have a mature relationship which is so refreshing to see. These sisters have figured out that the children come first and they need to swallow their pride and do whatever it takes to bring peace and happiness to the situation.
“Sheree and I both had to make that decision, because at the end of the day, we had Trey and that had to be the primary focus,” Jada told Oprah. “So we had to put aside our own craziness, our stuff, all the baggage that comes with it. She and I just had to focus on, ‘What does he need?'”
Sheree says that while getting to that place took time, it was extremely important. “You realize, [Will and I] had our chance, now it’s about those kids.”
How genius! I say that in a genuine way because it’s more the norm for the ex-wife/partner and the current wife (or the ex-husband and current husband) to not get along. In the end, parents may not always think so, but feuding parents and step-parents just ruins the kids.
Will and Jada say they often talk with their kids about the purpose of the entertainment business, beyond just getting the role and acting. “We talk about the idea [that] you create something that is illustrating some aspect of the human spirit,” Will said on the show. “It can be funny and it can be exciting. It can be scary. But what you’re trying to do, as artists, is to elevate humanity. When you’re choosing your work and you’re choosing the material that you’re putting into the world, you have to understand that somebody else’s kids are going to see that. Somebody’s grandmother is going to see it. Are they going to be better or worse after they have contact with your material?”
Read more about the Smith family at Oprah.com
Do you have a blended family? Is it always peaceful or do you have to work on it?
