Jada Pinkett Smith described herself as a ‘walking miracle’ for being able to overcome her addiction issues as she opened up about drug abuse on her show Red Table Talk.
The 49-year-old, who is married to Will Smith, reflected on how she had mixed drugs and alcohol at a time in her life when she considered herself to be a ‘weekend party girl’.
She recalled being able to ‘drink almost anybody under the table’, explaining that when she arrived in Hollywood she began mixing hard liquor with using marijuana and ecstasy, with the belief they weren’t addictive.
Pinkett Smith acknowledged that addictions issues run in her family, with her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, previously struggling with heroin addiction. Banfield-Norris joined the conversation on Red Table Talk and explained that while she has been sober for nearly 30 years, she initially suffered through several relapses while trying to overcome her addiction.
Pinkett Smith said she convinced herself that drinking red wine was more acceptable because of its reported health benefits, but for her, it was like ‘drinking glasses of water’.
She continued:
So, ecstasy, alcohol, weed. Let me tell you, I was having myself a little ball.
I wasn’t doing things that I thought were addictive. But I would do those three together, that was my cocktail. Your threshold becomes so high, that what it takes for you to get to the place you need to get to, it’ll take me two bottles to get to… OK, if I do ecstasy, weed and alcohol at the same time I’m gonna get there faster and I can keep the high going.
Hear Pinkett Smith discuss more about her addiction issues below:
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Explaining that her habit of overindulging dated back as far as high school, Pinkett Smith recalled how it continued until an incident on the set of the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor.
The actor was in the makeup trailer when she passed out after taking a ‘bad batch’ of ecstasy, explaining she later ‘told everybody that [she] must have had old medication in a vitamin bottle.’
She described the experience as ‘eye-opening’, adding: ‘But I tell you what I did though. Got my a*s together and got on that set. That was the last time.’
Daughter Willow Smith, who also appeared on the show, acknowledged smoking weed but said she ‘would never do something’ like go to work high as her mother had done.
Pinkett Smith acknowledged that she reached her ‘rock bottom’ before getting sober, saying: ‘I think back on my life, like, I am a walking miracle, no doubt about that. People will not believe.’
The actor said she still has triggers and can’t be around dark liquor like rum, though occasionally she has a glass of wine.
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Topics: Celebrity, Addiction, Ecstasy, heroin, Jada Pinkett Smith, Red Table Talk, Willow Smith
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