The actor Will Smith posted a touching black-and-white photo of himself and Jaden on Instagram on Saturday, July,8, along with a warm, amusing caption to celebrate Jaden’s milestone birthday.
“Happy Birthday, J-Diggy. It’s crazy that you’re 25?!?! When I was 25 I had a 2 yr. Old,” Will Smith,54, wrote via Instagram, on July 8. “I’m just sayin’… What’s up? What you”.
Smith added a sweet postscript to the caption, commenting on the father-son photo, “BTW, this is my favorite picture of us.”
In 1992, Will and Sheree Zampino welcomed their son Trey into the world. While Will Smith and Sheree divorced in 1995, however in 1997 the actor wed Jada Pinkett Smith. They are parents to 22-year-old daughter Willow and son Jaden.
“When Will Smith and Jada got together, Jada wasn’t a mom,” Zampino — who is currently a “friend” on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — told Us Weekly in August 2022.
“So, she wasn’t experienced, she didn’t have a certain understanding. … So, that sometimes caused a little friction.”
Zampino claims that Pinkett Smith has been “amazing” to Trey and has eventually found her feet as a stepmother.
“For him to be calling her mom, he’s comfortable. And he’s probably also trying to fit into that family dynamic,” Zampino confessed to Us.
“So, let him go through his process, let him do that. Doesn’t take anything away from me. I’m very secure in my role in his life. I’m secure with being his mom. Nobody can undermine that.” he added.
Son Jaden and daughter Willow were eventually welcomed into the world by Will and Pinkett Smith in 1998 and 2000, respectively.
“My style of parenting is very similar to that of my parents, minus the concept of ownership,” Will told Haute Living in a 2013 interview.
“We respect our children the way we would respect any other person. Things like cleaning up their room. You would never tell a full-grown adult to clean their room, so we don’t tell our kids to clean their rooms.”
Pinkett Smith recalled during a June 2018 episode of Red Table Talk “I remember this day specifically. It’s probably one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life,” and continued.
“You got to a point where you told me straight up, you were like, ‘Mom, I have to leave here to live my life.’ I remember thinking to myself, as devastated as I was, I was like, ‘He’s right. The time is now.’ … I told Will when Jaden was smaller, I said, ‘We’ll be lucky to keep him in the house till he’s 16’ because he was so mature.”
The decision to pursue emancipation was eventually made by Jaden, who said to Ellen DeGeneres in May 2013 that he is “not going anywhere.”
