Jada Pinkett Smith Opens Up About Battle With Mental Illness In Memoir

Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, gets real about battling severe depression.

Smith, the wife of actor Will Smith, is set to release a new book, “Worthy,” and the page-turner is reportedly filled with details about her life in Baltimore all the way to living the high life in Hollywood. An important aspect of the memoir is her reflection on the struggles she experienced before and during her achievement of high-ranking success.

She opens up about her parents’ substance abuse, her success in the entertainment industry as well as finding and loving herself through it all.

Smith, who as the host of Red Table Talk has previously addressed the importance of mental health with celebrity guests on the popular series, unpacks the details of what led her on a journey of “reclamation.” The Hollywood celebrity says it all began when she experienced a low in her mental health and began feeling sentiments about “want[ing] to be on this earth less and less.”

Smith says she understood how her life looked from the outside. She was the one with “the beautiful family, the superstar husband,” and living “the lavish lifestyle.” However, Smith says this was her “put[ting] on a brave face for two decades.”

In an excerpt from Smith’s book, she writes: “For two decades, I had been putting on a good face, going with the flow, telling everyone I was okay. Yet underneath, bouts of depression and overwhelming hopelessness had smoldered until they turned into raging hellfire in my broken heart. Unwelcome feelings — of not deserving love — made it harder to understand the disconnect between the so-called perfect life I had achieved and the well of loss I carried with me. Therapy helped up to a point. It got me to forty! But to what end?”

Smith’s memoir, “Worthy,” which details her experience with mental illness, among other things, is set to release Oct. 17.