Will Smith opens up on Jaden asking to be emancipated at 15 years old

Will Smith revealed why Jaden ended up feeling ‘betrayed’ by him so much so he asked to end Will’s parental legal authority over him.

After being left feeling ‘betrayed’ by Will Smith, Jaden asked about ‘being an emancipated minor’.

Jaden – son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith – followed in his parents’ footsteps into the film and TV industry when he starred in 2006 release The Pursuit of Happyness alongside his dad.

However, another film the pair both starred in together didn’t go down quite as well.

In 2013, Will and Jaden embarked on post-apocalyptic action-adventure After Earth.

The film was loosely based on a story idea by Will about a father and son duo taking a trip into the wilderness.

Written by M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta, it then developed into a sci-fi film set 1,000 years in the future with an environmental catastrophe on earth resulting in all humans being evacuated to another planet.

The film starred Will and Jaden but was also produced by Will, Jada Pinkett Smith, alongside Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter.

Unfortunately, the film was slammed by critics and its Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t much better either.

The tomatometer score for the film currently stands at 12 percent and it has a popcornmeter score of just 36 percent.

And the reception at both the box office and from critics and viewers took its toll on not just the movie, but its performers and also Jaden and Will’s relationship.

Will and Jaden Smith starred alongside one another in ‘After Earth’ (Sony Pictures Releasing).

In Will’s memoir Will – first released in November 2021 – the actor reflected on After Earth as being ‘an abysmal box office and critical failure’.

The actor continued: “And what was worse was that Jaden took the hit.

Fans and the press were absolutely vicious; they said and printed things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat.

“Jaden had faithfully done everything that I’d instructed him to do, and I had coached him into the worst public mauling he’d ever experienced.”.

Will explained while the pair ‘never discussed it’, he knew his son ‘felt betrayed’ as well as ‘misled’, and ultimately ‘lost his trust in [Will’s] leadership].

Will continued: “At fifteen years old, when Jaden asked about being an emancipated minor, my heart shattered.

He ultimately decided against it, but it sucks to feel like you’ve hurt your kids.”.

Since then, Jaden has appeared in several films and TV shows including 2016 Netflix series The Get Down and movies Skate Kitchen (2018) , Life in a Year (2020) and Entergalactic (2022), however, he’s still yet to star in one alongside his dad again.