How Jada Pinkett Smith Became Good Friends With Will Smith's Ex

In a world were nuclear families are becoming a thing of the past, more and more people find themselves learning how to deal with the concept of a blended family. It can be hard on a marriage when there are stepchildren involved, but for Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband's ex Sheree Fletcher, they grew to embrace it.

Jada Pinkett Smith at the 2017 Jingle Ball

Jada, 46, married Will Smith in 1997 when she was just 25-years-old, but he was already going through a divorce when they started dating, and he and his ex-wife Sheree already had a young son named Trey. It's never easy to become a stepmother; there are always struggles with jealousy from both sides and clashing parenting methods, and that's why the two women got together to discuss it on her Facebook show 'Red Table Talk' yesterday (May 9th 2018).

'I did a lot of work on myself', Jada told Sheree. 'And I must say this relationship between you and I was one of the fundamental relationships where I had to learn how to woman up.'

Sheree even admitted that she sometimes thought Jada could be a little overbearing, especially in regards to her own child, but she always managed to tell herself that she was doing everything she could in the situation.

'We have to understand that we do have boundaries and lanes', Sheree said. 'Sometimes it was too much and I thought Jada needed to fall back. But I also saw your heart in it. You weren't trying to take my place. You meant well.'

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for Jada to come to terms with was that Sheree was an ex that was never not going to be a part of Will's life. 'When you have a child, when you create life with someone, there's always going to be a bond there. Period', she said. 'I'm not talking about a romantic bond. But there's going to be a bond there, and that's just real.'

So how did they combat their feelings when things got tough? Well, it turns out they did it the grown-up way; they sat down and talked about it. 'We had a lot of family meetings', Jada continued. 'We did a lot of things together. Even if we weren't both there mentally, we had the same intention and the same need for harmony.'

More: Jada Pinkett Smith insists she doesn't have an 'open marriage'

Now the pair are good friends and navigating this extended family has become easy. Jada and Will are mother to two other children - 19-year-old Jaden and 17-year-old Willow - and both see Sheree (or ReRe as they call her) as another member of their family.