Willow Smith‘s early success with her hit single “Whip My Hair” caused friction between her and dad Will Smith.
The singer, 18, opened up about the effect that her song had on herself and her relationship with her parents, including mom Jada Pinkett Smith, during Monday’s episode of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk.
Willow was 10 years old when the song came out.
“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,” Willow revealed.
“It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt,” she continued.
While she learned to forgive her parents, Willow added she also had to learn to forgive herself.
“And I had to forgive myself because I felt guilty because everyone is trying to make me better, trying to make my dream. But I didn’t really understand what my dream entailed,” she said.
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Earlier this year, Willow admitted on the Facebook Watch show that she had cut herself during her song’s success as a way to cope with the pressures of fame.
“It was after that whole ‘Whip My Hair’ thing and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this gray area of, ‘Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?’” Willow said of her 10-year-old self.
“After the tour and the promotion and all of that, they wanted me to finish my album,” she continued. “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 just 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.”
Willow said she “totally lost my sanity” during that time period.
“I never talk about it because it was such a short weird point in my life. But you have to pull yourself out of it,” she explained.
Red Table Talk airs Mondays on Facebook Watch.
