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Jada Pinkett Smith is back at the red table and this week, she invited Sheree Zampino as co-host instead of Willow Smith. Regular RTT co-host Adrienne Banfield Norris, Jada’s mom, was at the table, too, in her usual spot.
In case you’re not as up on your pop culture as you need to be, Sheree is Will Smith’s first wife, and the mother of his now-grown son, Trey.
The two have been on Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk together before where they discussed their blended family, which grew to include Pinkett’s two children with Will, Jaden, and Willow.
Apparently, the two Mrs. Smiths had more to reveal. This time, the topic was “toxic forgiveness,” i.e. when people feel forced to forgive even when they’re not ready to. According to an episode description, therapist Nedra Glover Tawwab, a guest along with country music star Jana Kramer, explains how to cope with that via her “unforgiveness revolution.” She says that toxic forgiveness is “an unhealthy way that people pretend to be unharmed, over it or forgetful of the offense. Forgiving to keep the peace, or people-pleasing is not healthy for your mental health or your relationship.”
Yet forgiveness was on the menu, as Pinkett shared with Zampino, now a cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, that she felt she needed to apologize for dating Will so quickly after the couple separated.
“We really had to figure it out along the way,” Pinkett Smith says. “For me, it really was just about maturity, just not understanding the marital dynamic. Like OK, well, divorce papers are sent and people are over it, then this is done. That was my biggest misconception.”
“Oh no, we’re just getting started,” Zampino laughs. But she says she’s let old hurts go because Pinkett Smith was apologetic when she was wrong.
“I remember you coming to me, and you were teary, you were very emotional and you said, ‘I just didn’t know,’” Zampino told Pinkett Smith. “And basically what you were saying is, ‘I was in the picture too soon.’ And you apologized for that….Divorces ain’t no joke. So thank you, ’cause you’ve always been one to, like, you know, ‘Ree, I done missed it. Forgive me.’ And we were able to move on.”
And although the family is now as cordial as blended families can get, according to all parties involved, they admitted to some memorably rocky moments. Pinkett Smith remembers a time when Zampino came into the house she shared with Will and walked “all up into the master bedroom” apparently to make sure that her ex-husband and son were living well. Or something like that.
“In the house I picked out,” Zampino reminded Pinkett Smith.
Though they’re laughing about these moments now, at one point, Zampino had to check young Jada years back when Trey was acting up.
“I can remember sometimes that I really crossed the line. One time Trey had a play date and he had misbehaved. I was like, we gotta sit down we gotta talk about this, Trey can’t be behaving like this…”
Zampino remembers that she’d come to drop Trey off and Jada met her at the door saying “We’ve gotta talk about his behavior.” Her response was ‘Go get his daddy please.’ Turns out, Trey’d acted up at Sheree’s home, not Jada’s.
“Out of order,” the ladies agreed.
But all’s well that ends well.
In fact, things between the women are so good that Pinkett Smith says she’s OK with Zampino and Will taking trips together without her. She further explains that the trio is not a “throuple” and that Smith and Zampino are “not together romantically.” Zampino only goes on trips when Will’s on business and when his mother and sister are there, too, Pinkett Smith clarified.
Good she cleared that up.
Now that the women have shared, we’re just wondering when we’ll get the Red Table Talk we’ve all been waiting for – the one where Will and Jada talk about “The Slap.”
Watch the full episode below:
