Sponsored adThis sponsor paid to have this advertisement placed in this section.
Jada Pinkett Smith Thought She'd Be Dead by 21

Sponsored adThis sponsor paid to have this advertisement placed in this section.
Life wasn't always glitz and glamour for Jada Pinkett Smith. The multi-millionaire actress, the wife of multi-multi-millionaire actor Will Smith, has opened up about being raised in poverty by her drug-addicted mother and grandmother, claiming the neighborhood she grew up in was so rough that she expected to be dead by 21. "I grew up in a drug-infested neighborhood where you walk out each day and you just hope that you make it. I came from a war zone," she says. "There was a possibility that I wouldn't make it past 21—that was the reality. When I turned 40 (last year) it was a surreal moment because I had never imagined reaching 40." Her two children Willow and Jaden are both burgeoning musicians; Jada says she would be "terrified" to raise them in the environment she grew up in. "I wish to God I could have had the luxury to sit back and think, 'Mom, I want to go out and get my vocal lessons today because I have this new song that I want to write,' she says. "What I had to think about was, 'Oh man, I wonder what I'm going to eat tonight because there's no food here. How am I going to get to school? And is my mom going to be okay today? Will this be one more day she survives her addiction?' That's the kind of stuff I had to think about at 11."