Will Smith said his family suffered after his and Jada Pinkett Smith’s 11- and 9-year-old children Jaden and Willow started their Hollywood careers in 2010.

The Smiths are superstars, but fame hasn’t always been easy.

Will Smith recently disclosed that his and Jada Pinkett Smith’s children Jaden and Willow Smith started acting and singing young.

“2010 was like the greatest year as an artist, as a parent,” the Oscar winner told Kevin Hart on Hart to Heart on July 3 about his kids’ achievements. Karate Kid debuted in June, ‘Whip My Hair’ in October. I’m building my dream family. ‘I’ll do it better than my father.’ We’ve discussed my abusive father. I had a dream of a family and vowed never to have that energy with my family. Almost everything I wanted happened in 2010–2012.”

However, encouraging their 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter to follow in their parents’ Hollywood footsteps initially failed.

“Nobody in my family was happy,” said Will. “Nobody wanted platoons. Willow started the mutiny, and I realized that success and money don’t bring pleasure. Before that, I felt you could succeed—get a house and family—and win your way to happiness.”

The Men in Black star learned from Jaden and Willow’s displeasure: “Material circumstances do not equal happiness and, in a lot of cases, they can be the reason you’re not happy.”

“Having too much stuff makes you miserable,” Will said. “That was my first pull-back and I was like, ‘OK, what am I missing?'”

The 54-year-old, who has son Trey, 30, with ex Sheree Zampino, said it was a turning point that encouraged him to read and study psychology. Will was thrilled with his achievement, but “I was driving the people around me in a way that I was leaving scorched earth around me.”

Will “discovered feelings” he had ignored for achievement. “I never gave an f–k about feelings, you can’t care about feelings,” said. “How are you going to win if you’re worried about how you feel?”

He said, “That doesn’t work at home.”

Willow, 22, has expressed bitterness toward her dad for pushing her into Hollywood early.

“I definitely had to forgive you and daddy for that whole ‘Whip My Hair’ thing,” she told Jada on Red Table Talk in 2018. Due to his harshness, it was largely dad. A few years, actually. Regaining trust after feeling unheard and uncared about.”