Getting back on track. Jaden Smith detailed how an intervention from his parents, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, helped him gain weight after photos of him looking very thin went viral.
The Get Down alum, 23, said on the Wednesday, December 22, episode of Red Table Talk that he “definitely” feels better after his mom and dad encouraged him to alter his diet. “I was able to work with the doctors and really get my vitamins and get my supplements and protein shakes,” he explained. “That’s half of my diet. It’s like a password that I have to find to my body.”
The Karate Kid star added that he’s “10 pounds heavier now,” noting, “I feel like I’m keeping on my weight. I’m able to put on my muscle.”
Back in 2019, the Magic Mike XXL actress, 50, and her husband, 53, revealed that they had a “bit of an intervention” with their son when they thought his health was suffering because of his strict eating habits. “We realized he wasn’t getting enough protein,” Jada said in September of that year. “He was wasting away. He just looked drained, he was just depleted, he wasn’t getting the nutrients.”
Will, for his part, said that Jaden had “dark circles” under his eyes and developed a “grayness” tone to his skin. “We got really nervous,” he added.
At the time, the “Cabin Fever” singer said that he was switching back and forth between vegan and vegetarian diets, but he admitted that he probably wasn’t eating enough each day. “I was just eating, like, two meals a day … maybe one,” he explained. “Maybe just that one big meal and I’m like, ‘Oh, you know, I didn’t get around to it.'”
Though Jaden previously expressed annoyance with his parents for publicly discussing their “intervention,” he changed his tune, noting on Wednesday that he’s happy that he has a better handle on his nutritional needs now.
“That was a long way from where I was when I was at Coachella, where I just was just, like, bones,” he said on Red Table Talk, referencing his April 2019 appearance at the musical festival. “I thought I was so tight! I was like, ‘This. I’m swagging on this. Like, I need to take off my shirt right now.'”
Earlier this year, Jaden’s sister, Willow Smith, was similarly candid about her mental health during an episode of “The Yungblud Podcast.” The “Whip My Hair” singer, 21, discussed whether releasing new music had helped her heal from some of the anxiety she faced as a child star.
“For so long, I had a lot of fear that was just, like, in my heart, and just sitting there. I felt extremely unsafe in my music career in the past, and that feeling of insecurity or un-safety — I just didn’t feel protected, which went really deep,” she said in July. “And now I’m kind of going back in, and it’s so interesting because all of those memories and emotions have just been resurfacing.”
New episodes of Red Table Talk are available to stream via Facebook Watch on Wednesdays.