For a special Father’s Day edition of Jada Pinkett Smith‘s Red Table Talk, Will Smith is joining his wife on the red couch for an intimate one-on-one conversation about parenting.
From the lessons they’ve learned as parents, the failures they’ve had to overcome and what their children have taught them through it all, Will is opening about his journey to fatherhood. During their candid conversation, Jada asked Will, “When do you think your fatherhood instincts kicked in?”
“From the time I was six years old, I wanted to be a father,” Will responded. “I loved how my family was but there were massive critical deficiencies in my father’s parenting that I wanted to correct. By the time I was ten years old, I remember looking at my father and thinking that I could do it better than him.”
He went on, “My father had a little bit of a temper. I was a gentle kid, like, I was not a kid that you had to slap or punch or beat. So growing up in a household where physical aggression was approved of, that really chaffed my hide. That hurt my spirit.”
And for Will, becoming a father for the first time was a transformative experience. The Pursuit of Happyness actor got emotional when reflecting on becoming a father to the first time at the age of 24 to his first born Trey Smith.
