Willow Smith Revealed It Took Years To Forgive Her Dad For How He Handled Her Early Fame

"It took a couple of years trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was listened to, or no one cared what I felt during that time."

If you cast your mind back to 2010, you'll probably remember how Will and Jada Smith's ten-year-old daughter Willow shot to fame with her hit song, "Whip My Hair."

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The song became a worldwide success, went platinum and for a while made Willow more famous than her parents.

However, Willow has now confessed that the "Whip My Hair" era was actually an extremely trying time for her family, and something she's still processing.

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Speaking on the most recent episode of Red Table Talk, Willow revealed that her father Will Smith was "so harsh" during her early career that it took "years" for her to forgive him.

Red Table Talk

When her mom Jada asked whether there was anyone in her life she'd had to forgive, Willow responded: "I definitely had to forgive you and daddy for that whole "Whip My Hair" thing. It was mostly daddy because he was so harsh at certain times. It was like, a couple of years trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was listened to, or no one cared what I felt during that time."

And Willow admitted to feeling "guilty" for not really knowing which direction her career should take back then.

Red Table Talk

She said: "I had to forgive myself too. I felt guilty because I was like, "Everyone is trying to make me better, trying to make my dream." But I didn't really understand what my dream entailed."

This isn't the first time Willow has addressed the tumultuous early days of her career. In fact, during a previous episode of the show she admitted that Will and Jada had failed to prioritise her "musical growth and knowledge" and that she'd ended up self-harming.

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Willow told Jada: "You and daddy should have been like, "OK, we value her musical growth and knowledge more than her popularity." After the tour and the promotion and all of that, they wanted me to finish my album. And I was like, "I'm not gonna do that." And after all of that kinda settled down and it was like a kind of lull, I was listening to a lot of dark music. It was just so crazy and I was plunged into this black hole, and I was cutting myself."

You can watch the full episode here.

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