Jada Pinkett Smith Tears Up on RTT Discussing ‘Terrified Little Girl Underneath’ Her ‘Strong’ Exterior

Mother Hunger author Kelly McDaniel joins Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris on Red Table Talk this week

Jada Pinkett Smith is expressing what’s behind her “strong” exterior.

In a clip from this week’s episode of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk, shared exclusively with PEOPLE, the co-host speaks with her daughter Willow Smith and mom Adrienne Banfield-Norris about parenting and growing up. The episode is titled “How Destructive Mothers Damage Their Daughters: Could This Be You?”

Kelly McDaniel — author of the 2021 book Mother Hunger: How Adult Daughters Can Understand and Heal from Lost Nurturance, Protection, and Guidance — joins the table for the emotional conversation. Jada, Gammy and Willow each open up about how their mothers affected them.

Entertainment reporter Tanika Ray also stops by to share how her destructive behaviors are linked to a strained relationship.

In the clip, Jada, 50, recalls her childhood, saying, “I had to, like, deal with a lot of stressful adult things at a young age. I didn’t have the ability to deal with the emotions that were coming with it. I just had to buck up.”

“So those women you see that you think are so strong, there’s this terrified little girl underneath. And that’s me,” the star adds, holding back tears and nodding her head as Willow, 21, says to her, “Oh, Mommy.”

Willow adds, “This is why we do the work.”

On a previous episode of Red Table Talk, Jada explained that it took her “a long time to understand” Willow’s anxiety.

She continued at the time, “I had a really difficult time relating, because, two things — her lifestyle and how she was brought up very different than mine — I don’t know what it’s like to be a child under hot lights. And then just, really not knowing how to comfort her, not knowing what help she needed, not understanding the behavior.”

Jada was confused by Willow’s anxiety, “even though I used to chew my fingernails down to the cuticles. But they didn’t say that that was anxiety. I was a nail-biter, that’s it.”

It forced her to look inward while learning how to better parent her daughter: “One thing I would say in having to deal with and learn about her anxiety, I’ve had to look at some of my own behaviors and the behaviors of my mother, and go, well of course I probably have some anxiety in regards to how I grew up. It was very difficult, even to this day, in just being there for her in the way that she needs.”