Jada Pinkett Smith Talks Controversy Surrounding Willow's Photo: "Don't Pollute Something That's Not Dirty"

Actress also gushes about marriage to Will Smith: "It’s almost as if calling him 'my husband' is too small of a word for what he means in my life"

By Bruna Nessif Aug 01, 2014 2:49 AMTags
Jada Pinkett Smith, TCAFrederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Jada Pinkett Smith will laugh and joke about many things, but not when it comes to her family.

The actress and mother of two came to daughter Willow Smith's defense again during an interview with high-end shopping site Net-a-Porter, when she was asked about the controversial photo of her 13-year-old lying in bed with a shirtless Moisés Arias, 20.

"Just don't pollute something that's not dirty," she says, shaking her head. "It's really tough. I feel like the connection to the value of women on a bigger scale has decreased tremendously. Even though you look and go, ‘Women have so many opportunities,' it's like, ‘Yeah, but at what cost?'

"Are women valued for being women, or are women valued when they have more masculine qualities? Men and women encompass both female and masculine energies, but it seems like when the feminine is present, it's not respected."

Tumblr/This photo of a minor was used as she is a celebrity in her own right

Pinkett Smith also noted earlier in the interview, "I want my kids to be happy and I want them to be themselves. I was saying to a friend the other day, ‘Remember, our kids are not us.' They're not. Sometimes we're trying to fix things that happened to us or projecting [onto them], and that's a terrible, terrible trap."

Speaking of her family life, Jada also opened up about her marriage to funnyman Will Smith, gushing about how much the actor means to her and confessing that it took some time to get to where they're at.

"We used to have all these rules, [but] as you go on in your relationship, you just get into a flow," she says. "The thing I love is being in a place where it's just like, Will, to me, encompasses everything. It's almost as if calling him 'my husband' is too small of a word for what he means in my life—and especially how I feel we, as women, identify the idea of a husband.

DaGreenTeam/Splash News

"I really had to mature and expand that. I think I had a very stuck idea of what a husband looks like, what a wife should be. Once I broke all of that, a whole new world opened for me and man, oh, man, I got to see him in all his glory. And so that's what it's evolved into. And I'm just ecstatic about it."

As for all of the tabloid rumors that surround their relationship, Pinkett Smith says they don't even pay it any mind.

"The coping technique is knowing what the truth is— here's no better technique. When you know that what's going on in your house is so the opposite [of what's being said], and you also know that when there's mystery, people fill in the gaps, that's OK," she says. "And then you look back at it and look at how creative people can be, and it's kind of entertaining. We can laugh because it's so ridiculous. But I get it. I don't take it personally."