Ahead of Father’s Day, Will Smith is admitting that the end of his first marriage to Sheree Zampino was devastating. He said nothing can touch the ‘failure’ he felt getting divorced from his toddler son’s mom.
Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith have been one of Hollywood’s top power couples for so long that a lot of fans may forget that he was previously married to Sheree Zampino in the early 1990s. Their three-year union produced his 27-year-old son Trey Smith. The 51-year-old superstar now says that when that marriage crumbled and ended in divorce, it was the “ultimate failure” for him. Will made the surprising admission to wife Jada, 48, in a sneak peek clip from her Red Table Talk Father’s Day edition, airing on Facebook on Sunday, June 21.
Jada brings up the concept that, “Just because a man might not be the best husband doesn’t mean he’s not a good father.” Will literally spoke the last half of the line with her, knowing exactly where she was coming from. “With Sheree and Trey, that was a really difficult time,” he confessed about his 1992-1995 marriage to Sheree. Trey was born in 1992, and was a toddler when his folks split.
“Divorce was the worst thing in my adult life. Divorce was the ultimate failure for me. I’ve been hurt a lot in my adult life, but I don’t think anything touches the failure of getting divorced from my 2-year-old son’s mother,” Will emotionally confessed. Home video then rolled showing a young Will changing baby Trey’s diapers.
Will and Jada met in 1994 when she auditioned for the role of his girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will’s wildly successful NBC sitcom. While she didn’t get the part, she got a new friend in the young star. When he and Sheree split, Will and Jada started dating. The couple married on Dec. 31, 2007 and went on to have two kids, son Jaden, 21, and daughter Willow, 19.
These days, Will’s first and second families get along just fine. Sheree was there with Trey, Jada, Jaden, Willow and the rest of their extended family when Will celebrated turning 50 by bungee jumping out of a helicopter above the Grand Canyon on Sept. 25, 2018. Sheree even had t-shirts and hoodies printed for her ex-husband’s big day. She showed them off in Instagram photos and wrote in the caption, “Will’s 50th at The Grand Canyon! The BIG WILLY 5.O. T-shirts were a HUGE hit!!!! Thank you @allprintingservicesinc for making my vision a “quick” reality!!!! And for helping to make @willsmith Birthday a little sweeter!” So all is well now, despite Will’s feelings of “failure” when they split.