Months after her now infamous sit-down with Jordyn Woods, Jada Pinkett Smith admits that she never wanted Woods to appear on Red Table Talk.
The Girls Trip actress opened up to People and shared that, initially, she didn’t want to discuss Woods’ involvement with Khloe Kardashian’s ex, Tristan Thompson. Smith has said in the past that Woods is a close family friend of the Smiths and felt that the Facebook Watch show was a “safe place” for her to tell her truth. However, she felt that the interview would be a far cry from her regular programming on RTT and she needed some convincing to go forward with the interview.
“Jordyn really felt like it was the only safe place that she could do that interview,” Smith said in her cover story, in which she, daughter Willow and mother Adrienne discuss their family’s bond.
“It actually wasn’t something I wanted to do because it was very close [to home], but as time transpired, Jordyn was just like, ‘I really need you in this platform’ and Will [Smith] felt like it was supremely important. So I was like, okay let’s do it.”
The personal history with Woods is something that allowed Jada to go through with the taping. Woods’ father, John, worked as a sound engineer on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which is how the Smiths and Woods formed a tight bond. Jada said during the talk with Woods that she’s known the model “her whole life.”
Fans will recall that the Red Table Talk episode allowed Woods to share her side of the cheating scandal.
The Secndnture CEO shared during the interview that she and Thompson did share a kiss, but they weren’t “making out.”
She also stated that nothing went further between the two in February 2018.
Woods’ appearance on Red Table Talk became the show’s most buzzed-about episode when it aired in March. Within the first 24 hours, the episode became the most-viewed Facebook Original episode. Smith said that she intended for the episode to “humanize” Woods and make fans of the show begin a dialogue about the situation and how it affects the people around them.
“Me having been a young girl, we sometimes get in situations that we don’t necessarily know how to handle,” Jada said. “You just [try to] help young girls navigate through life, through difficult situations we’ve all come across.”
Red Table Talk airs on Mondays on Facebook Watch.
