Before there was a Will and Jada, "Men in Black" star Will Smith was married to Sheree Fletcher, with whom he shares son Trey Smith.
The blended family got off to a bumpy start, which Jada Pinkett Smith admits was due in no small part to the fact that Smith was still "unwinding" his first marriage when they began dating.
For her new Facebook series "Red Table Talk," Pinkett Smith sat down with Fletcher for a candid discussion about the challenges they had to overcome.
"The beginning between us was rough," Pinkett Smith admitted. "Here's the one thing I will say in hindsight, because I did not understand marriage, I did not understand divorce. I probably should have fell back."
"You think," Fletcher fired back with a smile.
For her part, Fletcher admitted that the most difficult part for her was when Trey was introduced to Pinkett Smith for the first time.
"So Trey comes home and I said, 'How did you like Miss Jada?' He said, 'I really liked her, mommy,'" Fletcher recalled.
When Pinkett Smith reacted with tears, Fletcher reached out her hand and, tearing up as well, said, "Thank you for loving my baby."
Fletcher called it a turning point in her relationship with Pinkett Smith. "I did see your heart with Trey, I did see you that you loved this kid," she said.
Will and Jada, now married 20 years, would go on to have two kids of their own, Jaden Smith and Willow Smith. Despite the pictures of Trey smiling beside his two younger siblings through the years, Pinkett Smith said the blending of the two families has not been "seamless."
Both women expressed gratitude to each other for helping raise Trey, who is now a DJ, performing under the name DJ Ace.
"I'll tell you on this side of things, my son couldn't have a better bonus mom," Fletcher said.
"And he has a great mother," Pinkett Smith responded.
Later, joined by her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones, and daughter, Willow, Pinkett Smith called Fletcher "one of the main people in my life that has forced me to expand in a way that was beyond anything I imagined, and I’m so grateful."
She added, "It has been a hell of a journey," before wishing her viewers a Happy Mother's Day.
