Demi Moore has been an open book since releasing her extremely personal memoir, “Inside Out,” sharing the darkest moments of her past with readers — including fellow actress Jada Pinkett Smith, whose life has also been touched by addiction.
During Monday’s episode of her Facebook Watch series “Red Table Talk,” Jada invited Demi and her daughters to discuss how their relationship was affected by Moore’s prior drug and alcohol abuse, something the “Ghost” actress also experienced as the child of a mother who was an addict.
Jada, 48, was immediately able to see her own struggles in Demi, 56, and her children, as her mother and co-host, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, has previously opened up about her own addiction struggles.
“When I read ‘Inside Out,’ that was the part that I really related to, the generational trauma of it all,” Jada told Page Six in a recent interview. “What Demi had experienced in regards to her mother’s addiction and transgressions against her and then how the trauma from her mother and her mother’s addiction and Demi’s addictions affected her girls.”
“I have my own healing process that is happening in regards to generational trauma around addiction,” the host continued. “So, I just felt like that idea of pain passed down from parent to child is something that a lot of people are dealing with that we very rarely talk about. I thought that was a very worthy conversation to have.”
Jada said she and her mother, affectionately known as “Gammy,” took two different approaches while digesting Demi’s autobiography, which in turn affected how she received the experiences of Demi and ex-husband Bruce Willis’ three daughters: Rumer Willis, Tallulah Willis and Scout Willis.
“My mother went to the table more in Demi’s position and I was going to the table more so sitting in the seat of Tallulah and Rumer,” Jada shared. “When I read Demi’s book, I was reading it as a child of an addict. My mother read the book from the perspective of an addict.”
For women dealing with a mother who is an addict, the “Girls Trip” actress — who shares son Jaden Smith, 21, and daughter Willow Smith, 19, with husband Will Smith — suggests getting to know the person beyond her addiction and role as a parent.
“I ask women that I talk to that specifically have issues with their mothers, ‘Do you know anything about her childhood?’ and most of the time, nothing!”
She continued, “I always tell people, start there. Start by asking your mother, ‘Tell me about your childhood. What was your relationship like with my grandfather? What was your relationship like with my grandmother? How did you feel during your childhood? Did you feel emotionally safe?'”
For Jada, there was a strange comfort in hearing Demi and her kids speak so honestly about their complicated family dynamic, believing that every family “has complex relationships and dynamics, and these two families, my own and Demi’s, just so happen to share that dynamic of healing around addiction.”
While Jada enjoyed Demi’s new tome, she isn’t sure that a traditional memoir is the best way to share her own story.
“I think ‘Red Table Talk’ has become that for me,” Jada says when asked if she has plans to pen her own autobiography. “For some reason, I just don’t have any interest in writing a book. I feel like I’m a better speaker than writer. I feel like through ‘Red Table’ maybe one day I’ll be able to do something creative and piece together my story through the lens of ‘RTT.’ That might be an interesting way to go about it. As for trying to write a memoir? I’m not sure.”