Jada Pinkett Smith’s ‘honest and gripping’ memoir snapped up by Fourth Estate

Jada Pinkett Smith’s “honest and gripping” memoir has been signed by Fourth Estate for publication in autumn 2023.

PR and publishing director Michelle Kane acquired UK and Commonwealth rights while HarperCollins US vice-president and editorial director Carrie Thornton, who brokered the deal with Creative Artists Agency, will publish in the States. 

Pinkett Smith is an actress, entrepreneur, singer, philanthropist and talk-show host who has starred in films including The Matrix series and produced many projects including “The Secret Life of Bees” starring Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning for Fox Searchlight Pictures. She hosts a talk show called “Red Table Talk” alongside her daughter, Willow Smith and mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. She and her husband run the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation, a non-profit organisation that focuses on the arts, education, sustainability and social empowerment.

Fourth Estate said: “In her honest and gripping memoir, as yet untitled, the iconic actress and host of the innovative talk-show ‘Red Table Talk’, Jada Pinkett Smith chronicles lessons learned in the course of a difficult but riveting journey – a rollercoaster ride from the depths of suicidal depression to the heights of personal rediscovery and the celebration of authentic feminine power. With no holds barred, Jada reveals her unconventional upbringing in Baltimore – from the child of two addicts to a promising theatre student and a violent interlude as a petty drug dealer – followed by a parallel rise to stardom alongside her close friend 2Pac, then falling in love with and marrying Will Smith, and a joyous embrace of motherhood. In crisis at age 40, Jada recounts the excruciating choices she was forced to make to redefine her life in every way. At the heart of this powerful book are two unexpected love stories, one being Jada’s complicated marriage to Will Smith, the other being the one with herself.” 

Kane commented: “Jada Pinkett Smith is one of the most powerful global voices in modern popular culture and to have this opportunity to take her truth out to her audience in the UK is a huge privilege and responsibility. I have admired her fiercely for decades now and cannot wait to be part of what is undoubtedly going to be a landmark publication.”