Will Smith might be one of the biggest movie stars alive today.
And with that fame comes a huge amount of success.
But the actor isn't a saint, and like most people, he has made some big mistakes.
Keep watching to see the shady side of Will Smith
Early in his career, Will Smith made the mistake of thinking that cash would keep flowing in
after he got his first taste of fame.
During an episode of "Storytime" Smith said:
"Before I was getting in trouble with Uncle Phil, I was in trouble with Uncle Sam."
As part of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Smith released a successful
album titled "He's The D.J., I'm The Rapper" and won a Grammy in 1988.
He then went on a spending spree, buying designer clothing, cars, and motorcycles.
But the rapper made another huge financial error: He didn't pay his taxes.
To make matters worse, because of his cavalier spending spree, the then-19-year-old had no
money to pay the U.S. government when it noticed his neglect.
Smith recalled on "60 Minutes" in 2007 that the IRS basically took everything from him.
He estimated that he owed about $2.8 million in back taxes and had less than $5 in his
bank account.
After losing it all, Smith decided to move to Los Angeles.
To make the trip, he borrowed ten-thousand dollars from a friend of his who he called
a "purveyor of neighborhood pharmaceuticals."
So many of Will Smith's contemporaries would have clamored for the opportunity to speak
to Tupac Shakur, but jealousy kept the "Men in Black" star from showing the celebrated
hip-hop hitmaker any love.
Shakur was close friends with Will's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
She even possesses at least one unreleased poem by the late rapper, which she shared
on Instagram in 2021.
During a 2020 appearance on "The Breakfast Club," Will spoke about Jada's bond with the
man he once viewed as a rival.
He said,
"They grew up together ... [Jada] just loved him.
He was the image of perfection, but she was with the Fresh Prince."
Jada begged Will to get to know Shakur, believing that the two would become friends if Will
would just break the ice.
But even when Will found himself in the same room as Shakur, he steered clear of him.
Smith continued,
"I suffered a raging jealousy: I wanted Jada to look at me like that.
The way Jada loved 'Pac rendered me incapable of being friends with him.
I was too immature."
Shakur was shot and killed in 1996, and by 1998, Will had recovered from his jealousy
enough to pay tribute to Shakur while accepting his Grammy for best rap solo performance.
During his "Breakfast Club" interview, Will confessed that he now wishes he'd put his
pride aside and spoke to Shakur when he was alive.
Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have confessed to using some unconventional parenting methods
to raise their kids, including being lax with rules and discipline.
Will told Metro that his philosophy was to give his kids control over their lives as
young as possible.
But some critics seemingly thought the parents were being far too permissive in 2014 when
20-year-old actor Moises Arias shared an Instagram photo of their then-13-year-old daughter,
Willow Smith, lying on a bed with him.
Arias deleted the pic, but not before someone decided that it merited an investigation.
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services eventually cleared Willow's
parents of any wrongdoing, with an insider telling Radar that there was
"no evidence presented that Willow has ever been in any danger around Moises, or that
she has ever been physically or emotionally abused."
However, Will and Jada were reportedly told to monitor their kids' social media accounts
a little more closely.
Jada and Willow spoke about the incident during a 2019 "Red Table Talk" episode.
They revealed that the person who contacted authorities had claimed that Will and Jada
were starving Willow, who decided to eat a bowl of cereal in front of a visiting social
worker to disprove the allegation.
Jada said of the ordeal:
"The kids got to see for the first time why Will and I had been so protective."
As "Old Town Road" hitmaker Lil Nas X can attest, homophobia is still an issue in the
hip-hop industry, but some Will Smith fans might be surprised to learn that the "Wild
Wild West" rapper, who makes it a point to keep his lyrics rated PG, is guilty of making
ugly, prejudiced remarks about gay people.
The 1986 album "He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper" features a recording of Smith telling a live
audience,
"All the homeboys that got AIDS be quiet / all the girls out there that don't like guys be
quiet."
And this wouldn't be the only time he would insult the gay community.
While filming "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," Smith decided to prove that he was ready for
serious movie roles by starring in the 1993 film "Six Degrees of Separation."
But what he wasn't ready for was a scene that called for him to kiss co-star Anthony Michael
Hall.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith said,
"I was thinking, 'How are my friends in Philly going to think about this?'
I wasn't emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film."
Smith's explanation didn't fly with actor Ian McKellen, who wrote on his website,
"[Will's] twinge of homophobia was unseemly and unnecessary.
When I met him at the Los Angeles opening of the movie, I made sure to give him a kiss
for the benefit of the paparazzi."
Will Smith chased down bad guys in the 1995 buddy cop movie "Bad Boys," but years earlier,
he found himself on the wrong side of the law.
Smith got arrested in 1989, so he had some real-life experience to draw from when he
was shooting his mugshot scene in "Hancock."
In 2012, the National Enquirer published Smith's mugshot photos and listed his charges, which
included assault.
His bodyguard had beat up a record promoter and severely injured one of his eyes, allegedly
at Smith's behest.
In his memoir "Will," Smith explained that he was only arrested due to the existence
of a Pennsylvania law stating
"if one person commits a crime under the control or direct influence of a master, then the
'master' is legally liable for the actions of the submissive/slave party."
He also accused the victim's attorneys of pursuing legal action against him because
they assumed that they could get a big payout.
But, he wrote,
"The joke was on them.
I didn't have a dime to my name."
The charges were dropped, but Smith had to stay in jail longer than he should have because
his arrest happened on a Friday.
Spending the weekend in the clink gave him plenty of time to think.
He said,
"I am laying on the floor in a jail cell and I am like, 'You've got to be kidding me!'
I won a Grammy eight months ago.
Like, what is happening?"
It's not unusual for actors to fall for their co-stars, but when a marriage is involved,
things can get messy.
Will Smith was married to his first wife, Sheree Zampino, when he landed a role in the
1993 movie "Six Degrees of Separation."
The young actor was filming with a cast of seasoned thespians that included Donald Sutherland,
Ian McKellen, and Stockard Channing, and naturally, he wanted to prove himself worthy of working
with them.
Unfortunately, an experiment with method acting made his personal life awkward.
In his autobiography, Smith wrote:
"Sheree and I were in the first few months of our marriage with a brand-new baby and
for Sheree, I can imagine that this experience was unsettling, to say the least.
My character was in love with Stockard Channing's character.
And I actually fell in love with Stockard Channing.
So the movie was over and I went home, and I was dying to see Stockard.
I was like, "Oh no!
What have I done?"
He did eventually see his co-star again but decided to keep his crush to himself.
When the "Grease" star learned about Smith's feelings for her many years later, she had
nothing but praise for her secret admirer.
"That's very lovely to hear.
We liked each other and trusted each other.
That's actually quite rare."
Will Smith was already interested in Jada Pinkett Smith when he met his first wife,
"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Sheree Zampino.
In a 2018 "Red Table Talk" episode, Will recalled seeing Jada on an episode of "A Different
World" and feeling an instant attraction to her.
He attended a taping of the sitcom in hopes of meeting her, but Zampino caught his eye
while he was there, and they ended up clicking.
Will and Zampino ended their three-year marriage in 1995.
By then, Will had met Jada, and while Jada is adamant that Will did not cheat on Zampino
with her, he recalled how his feelings for Jada overwhelmed him when he was out with
his wife one night.
He confessed:
"I had to get up from dinner when I had a realization that I wasn't with the person
I was supposed to be with."
Zampino is actually the one who decided to file for divorce.
She felt that Will didn't have the ability to give her what she needed.
But it still stung when Will started dating Jada before their divorce was finalized.
On "Red Table Talk," Zampino spoke to Jada about one of the fiery exchanges they had
at the time.
Zampino recalled one moment in particular when she called to speak with her son:
"'B***h, you living in the house I picked out!'
You said, 'It's my house now.'"
Fortunately, the women were able to look back on the incident and laugh.
Will Smith's songs might be squeaky clean, but the "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" singer seems
to have a hard time censoring himself when it comes to his sex life.
After getting in peak physical condition to play boxer Muhammad Ali in 2001, he told Premiere,
"I am a sexual machine now.
Raring to go every second of the day.
I'm human Viagra.
I am Will-agra."
Smith's sexual appetite had not diminished by 2021 when he told GQ that he and an intimacy
coach had discussed his desire to have a harem.
The "Aladdin" star even shared the names of two famous women whom he would include in
it if he were a real-life genie capable of granting his wish: actor Halle Berry and ballerina
Misty Copeland.
He said,
"The idea of traveling with 20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that,
it seemed like a really great idea."
Smith has a habit of sharing way too much information about his love life.
In "Will," he wrote that he once had so much sex that climaxing started to make him throw
up, and in his GQ interview, he confirmed longstanding rumors that his marriage to Jada
hasn't always been monogamous.
However, after giving his harem fantasy a little more thought, he concluded that it
would be terrible in reality.
When Will Smith bragged about not cursing in his songs in his acceptance speech at the
1999 MTV Video Music Awards, one of the musicians that he beat in the best male video category
was Eminem.
The prolific profanity user seemingly thought Smith was dissing him, and Eminem later lobbed
an expletive at the Fresh Prince in "The Real Slim Shady."
In 2000, the Atlanta Constitution asked Smith to address his rival's complaints about his
self-censorship.
He told the newspaper,
"I'd rather wait five years and let's see who's still here, and then we'll talk about
it.
I don't have any ill feelings."
Smith stayed true to his word, taking a lyrical shot at Eminem and boasting about the ever-increasing
size of his bank account in his 2005 song "Mr. Niceguy."
On the track, he sings,
"Dissed by Eminem, but did it bother him?
/ Yup, but he classy / Big Will just did another 20 mill', walk right past E"
But it seems like Will Smith always knew that Marshall Mathers was going to be a star.
DJ Jazzy Jeff once recalled being in a recording studio with Eminem and overhearing Smith telling
the up-and-coming artist,
"You are either gonna be the biggest flop in hip-hop, or you are gonna be the biggest
thing that we have ever seen in hip-hop."
Will Smith and his son Jaden have had a close bond from the very beginning.
Jaden appeared in his dad's music video for "Just the Two of Us" when he was just a baby
and worked on two movies with Will.
But Will confessed that he and his oldest son, Trey Smith, whose mother is Will's ex-wife
Sheree Zampino, have had to work harder to build their relationship.
In 2018, Smith wrote on Instagram that,
"We struggled for years after my divorce from his mother.
He felt betrayed & abandoned."
Will updated fans on how he and Trey were doing the following year on his Facebook Watch
series, "Bucket List."
At the time, Trey was 26.
He said,
"Really in the last two years has there been enough wisdom and emotional development to
be able to lovingly address the issues.
You cannot get around spending time if you want to build love.
It's something I failed at for most of Trey's life, but I'm going to dedicate the rest of
my life to making up for it."
The father and son did have some good times when Trey was growing up.
On Instagram, Will revealed that they used to film their own "Matrix" spoofs called "The
Treytrix" for Trey's birthday even though the movie franchise is a sore spot for Will.
He has always regretted turning down "The Matrix" to star in "Wild Wild West."
Growing up, Will Smith was concerned about what his grandmother thought of him.
In a 2015 appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," Will said he was 12 years old when
his granny read some of his earliest, filthiest songs in a book and left him a note that read:
"Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like this to express
themselves."
He stopped using profanity in his songs, but he didn't stop exposing his poor granny to
explicit content.
Will appeared on "The Graham Norton Show" again in 2021 and recounted a prank he played
on his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
He put his sinister scheme in motion right before Jada met his granny for the first time.
He started his story by saying,
"My grandmother Gigi is all the way down with Jesus.
Because she didn't know who Jada was, I put on a movie of hers."
The movie had a sex scene in it, and Will made sure that his grandmother saw it.
Just like Will, Jada got a dressing down for engaging in behavior that Will's grandmother
didn't approve of.
Will continued:
"She looked up and said to Jada, 'When I was growing up people didn't have to take their
clothes off to make a movie.'"
He tried to tell Jada that she would appreciate his hijinks someday, but confessed that she
never did look back on the moment and laugh.
On "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," viewers often saw family members put aside their differences
to support one another when they needed it most.
But according to actor Janet Hubert, Will Smith made her life so much worse when she
was already going through a tough time.
Hubert played Aunt Viv on the sitcom from 1990 until 1993 when she was replaced by Daphne
Reid.
"Would you to knock it off?
You're married, it's time to start acting like it."
"Viola, this is why I got married."
In 2011, Hubert told TMZ that she believed it was Smith's fault that she ended up losing
the role.
Her animosity toward him was so strong that she swore she would never participate in a
"Fresh Prince" reunion.
She said,
"I will never do anything with an a--hole like Will Smith.
He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up."
She blasted him again in a since-deleted 2016 Facebook post, accusing him of brushing her
off when she asked him to help the rest of the cast negotiate better contracts.
Smith and Hubert eventually did make amends during a 2020 HBO reunion special.
Hubert revealed that she was struggling during the period before she lost her job.
She had just given birth and said that her husband was abusive and jobless.
Smith apologized for the way he treated Hubert, saying,
"I wasn't sensitive, I wasn't perceptive ... I can see where I made the set very difficult
for Janet."
It took decades for Janet Hubert to get an apology from Will Smith, but it didn't take
long for the actor to realize that he'd screwed up by cursing out one of his bosses.
In his book "Will," he recounted how he once decided to make a few of his own modifications
to some "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" scenes that were falling flat.
This resulted in Smith getting reprimanded by an unnamed NBC executive.
While Smith described the executive's behavior as condescending and abrasive, he misinterpreted
the man's actions.
Smith bristled when the exec decided to remain standing for their meeting and got more agitated
as the exec walked around the room.
Smith reached his breaking point when the exec allegedly told the actor that he was
replaceable. Smith jumped up, got in his face, and said,
"What the f--k you wanna do, b---h?"
He continued shouting at the executive and even ordered him to sit down, and Smith didn't
relent when the man told him that he'd just had back surgery.
After he cooled down, executive producer Quincy Jones, the man who possibly saved Smith from
financial ruin by pushing him to audition for "Fresh Prince," assured him that his outburst
was no big deal.
The 2022 Oscars ceremony took a dramatic turn when Will Smith took offense to comments Chris
Rock made about his wife's hair.
Every hot take possible was written about the moment Will left his seat, cursed at Rock,
and slapped him.
It seems like every celebrity in the world had one take or another.
Even O.J.
Simpson weighed in on Twitter, where he spoke out against Will's violent actions.
But Will's former "Fresh Prince" co-star, Janet Hubert, took his side, writing in a
since-deleted Instagram post,
"Sometimes you have to slap back."
The drama started when Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith starring in a "G.I.
Jane" sequel, a reference to her buzzed head.
Jada rolled her eyes as her husband laughed, but Will's mood suddenly darkened.
Rock's joke likely didn't go over so well with the couple because Jada has alopecia,
a condition that causes hair loss.
Smith went on to win the best actor Oscar for "King Richard."
In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged that,
"I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse."
The tearful actor didn't apologize to Rock at the time, but he addressed him by name
later in an Instagram post, saying,
"I was out of line and I was wrong.
I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be."
In the continuing fallout from the slap, Variety is reporting that Smith has resigned from
The Motion Picture Academy.
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