Jada Pinkett Smith Discusses Alopecia on ‘Red Table Talk’ With the Mother of a Child Who Died by Suicide: ‘The Devastation of This Condition’
31.05.2022 - 21:37
/ usmagazine.com
After revealing her own alopecia diagnosis, Jada Pinkett Smith invited Niki Ball on Red Table Talk to discuss how bullying over her daughter Rio’s condition led to the child’s death.
“With the hair loss, she was so strong. She still rocked it even when it was falling out, and she just had these big bald patches. Tried the creams. They made her break out. Tried the injections, she took five of them in one day,” Ball explains in a Facebook clip from the show’s new episode, which will be released on Wednesday, June 1. “But neither of them really did anything.”
In the emotional sneak peek, Pinkett Smith, 50, is joined by mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris and daughter Willow Smith as they listen to Ball. The guest recalls how happy her 12-year-old was when they decided to shave her head amid her alopecia areata diagnosis.
“And then with school coming up, we got her that super cute wig, she loved it, and she glowed then,” Ball adds. “But at school, within a couple of weeks, she was like, ‘I don’t want to wear it anymore, there’s no point.’ She had it ripped off her head. She’d get smacked upside on the head walking down the hallway. And that was within the first two weeks, three weeks. It got really bad for her.”
After dealing with severe bullying at school, Ball’s daughter Rio died by suicide in March. “She was so smart. She was just brilliant,” she continues. “And she was funny. She was a great big sister. She loved reading and writing and sketching. She loved being in the band.”
The Red Table Talk host noted that Rio’s story is an example of why people need to develop “an understanding around the devastation of this condition.” Pinkett Smith, for her part, previously opened up about dealing with hair loss as a result of alopecia.
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