Singer and actress Willow Smith reduced her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, to tears after revealing that she cut her wrist after her successful first single, Whip My Hair.
The 17-year-old made the admission during an episode of Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk.
The second instalment of the talk show saw Pinkett Smith and her own mother, Adrienne Norris, discuss how they coped with the pain of losing loved ones in their lives.
Pinkett Smith detailed how she coped following the death of her friend, rapper Tupac Shakur, while Norris talked about the death of her older sister.
On the show, Willow Smith said she lost her sanity following the release of Whip My Hair in 2010. She was nine years old when the song went platinum in the US.
Smith explained: “I had just, like, stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of in this grey area of ‘Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?’
“After the tour and the promotion and all of that, they wanted me to finish my album and I was just like ‘I’m not gonna do that.’
“And after all that kind of settled down and it was like a lull, I was just listening to a lot of dark music and it was just so crazy.
“I was just plunged into this black hole and I was, like, cutting myself.”
After confessing that she had harmed herself, Pinkett Smith and Norris appeared shocked.
Pinkett Smith said: “What? Really? When were you cutting yourself? I didn’t see that part.”
Today’s the day! So proud to finally bring you our very first episode of #RedTableTalk and can’t wait to hear what you all think. See you there ✨ https://t.co/ElkVphm9xL pic.twitter.com/lpuLaApNgU
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) May 7, 2018
Smith told her relatives “I was experiencing so much emotional pain.
“But my physical circumstances weren’t reflecting that. (Cutting yourself) makes it feel real instead of like a ghost, like, in your mind.”
She went on to point to the part of her arm where she had cut herself.
She said the incident had taken place a long time ago and she had previously only told one close friend about it.
Pinkett Smith wept as her daughter told her story.
Online series Red table Talk premiered on May 7 and is available to watch on Facebook.