When Jada Pinkett-Smith was 8 years old, her mother, Adrienne Banfield Jones, was married to Warren A. Brown, who is now a very prominent attorney in Baltimore, Maryland. But, before his career took off, life was a bit different and things were far from all good for Jada, her stepdad, and mother.

“At Time I Felt Guilty”

In 1979 when Warren Brown was married to Jada’s mom, Adrienne (pictured below with young Jada), the two spent a lot of their time high (both have been drug-free for many years now) and after Jada admitted, in her 2013 Facebook post, that she’d had many addictions, Warren read it and felt bad, wishing he would have been there for the child he helped raise.

During an interview with Celebuzz, Brown offered details about their lives behind closed doors back then. He also expressed his guilt for exposing his innocent stepdaughter, Jada, to the dark side of addiction. Brown admitted that his drug of choice was cocaine, but refrained from speaking about Jada’s mother.

“At times I felt guilty,” Brown said. “I remember just the three of us in the house together and I knew I was high and so was her mother. She didn’t know though, she was too young to recognize it. She didn’t see us doing anything. But I felt really bad because I thought this little girl deserves better than her parents (being) addicted.”

He continued about he and Jada’s relationship and in a separate reveal, Jada gave surprising details of her own.

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They Were Both Functional Users

Warren Brown went on to reveal he and Adrienne were both functional users, successfully tackling daily obligations and taking care of responsibilities. But, behind closed doors, things weren’t exactly as they should have been:

“While we were both dealing with that, I was still going to court and she was going to school and working. She left it up to me to watch Jada,” he added. […] I question that if I had not divorced myself from them, whether or not she would have fallen into addictions. And if I had been around I may have witnessed it and been able to pull her out of it.”

“She was a sweet little girl. We were very close. It was me and Jada,” said Brown.

“I was raising her while her mother was working and in college. We spent a lot of time together. […] But once I separated from her and her mom [in 1986], I quickly got remarried and my new wife asked that I distance myself from her. So it was a sudden departure for Jada, and it was always just the two of us.”

He can’t help but think if he would have been there for her, she would have struggled less. “Anyone who knew of our relationship would not disagree that my estrangement with her may have played a part,” admitted Brown. “I tend to think that if I was there, I could have provided a positive role model. I loved that little girl.”

Although many years have passed and Jada has moved forward, she’s never forgotten where she came from. In a past Facebook post, Jada opened up to fans about her past:

“What I learned about myself is this, when I was younger I was not a good problem solver, meaning I had a very difficult time with dealing with my problems in life,” she wrote. “I had many addictions, of several kinds, to deal with my life issues, but today, at 42, I have my wisdom, my heart and my conscience as the only tools to overcome life’s inevitable obstacles. I have become a good problem solver with those tools, and I am damn proud.” source

Her mother also echoed similar sentiments in an exclusive discussion on Jada’s Red Table Talk. At the table, Adrienne Banfield shared details about those trying times with her granddaughter, Willow.

It was a very difficult time for us,” Banfield said to Willow. “You know, Jada did not have the kind of life that you have now. I was not a good mother, in my eyes. I know that your mom believes that all experiences, good and bad, help make you the person that you are today. But I just feel like during those times, the bad times outweighed the good.”

The old school saying, ‘what doesn’t kill can only make you strong,’ certainly rings truth for Jada, her former stepdad, and her mother. Props to all of them for sharing their story with the world.