Will Smith says “nobody in my family was happy” after achieving fame

Will Smith has opened up about the unhappiness his family felt during the early years of their success.

The Oscar-winning actor rose to fame with the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which aired from 1990 to 1996.

However, it wasn’t until two decades later, when his two children Jaden and Willow experienced their own success, that Smith felt he had achieved his dream.

“2010 was like the greatest year as an artist, as a parent,” Smith admitted on the season three finale of Kevin Hart’s Peacock TV show Hart To Heart.

“Karate Kid came out in June, ‘Whip My Hair’ came out in October,” the King Richard actor said, referring to Jaden’s first major film and Willow’s first debut single.

“I’m building this dream of a family I’ve had in my mind. ‘I’m going to do it better than my father did it.’ We’ve talked about it, my father was abusive. I told myself I would never have that kind of energy with my family and I had a dream, an idea of a family I was building. Pretty much 2010 to 2012 I had achieved everything I had ever dreamed.”

Willow Smith and Jaden Smith. CREDIT: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

However, despite the success he and his family had experienced, Smith recalled that “nobody in my family was happy”.

“No one wanted to be in a platoon. Willow was the first one to begin the mutiny and it was my first realisation that success and money don’t mean happiness,” the actor said.

“Up until that point, I really believed that you could succeed your way – to a house and a family – and you could win your way to happiness.”

The Men In Black star said it was then that he realised “material circumstances do not equal happiness and, in a lot of cases, they can be the reason you’re not happy”.

“You can have so much stuff that it makes you miserable,” Smith added. “That was my first pull-back and I was like, ‘OK, what am I missing?’ I was driving the people around me in a way that I was leaving scorched earth around me.”

Elsewhere, Smith recently shared his thoughts on the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike, describing it as “a pivotal moment for our profession.”

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