Will Smith and Janet Hubert publicly ended their long-standing feud last November when they both were part of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion” show, which first debuted on HBO Max.
Hubert was the original “Aunt Viv” on the classic comedy series for three years before being replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid. After her departure from the show, Hubert’s career and personal life were in shambles and she and Smith traded jobs throughout the years before their reconciliation.
“You’re only as good as the last job you ever did. We also know that you can make money [and] the next day you can have no money,” she explained to PopViewers about her downward spiral. “I also had just opened up a studio, signed a 10-year lease at like $60,000 to $100,000 worth of equipment, had a franchise to develop…I not only had a house, a mortgage, a husband who wasn’t working at the time, I also had a business and a baby, an infant who needed me desperately.”
Hubert also revealed in the interview that she contemplated suicide after the show ended because of the negative comments towards her and a feeling of being blackballed and labeled “difficult.”
“It was hard. There were moments when I felt so broken. So low. I didn’t know what I could do. There were moments where I wanted to die. I figured I had a life insurance policy to take care of my son… I’m not gonna do this. I can’t do this. I can’t make it, this is too much. ‘Cause everywhere I went people would attack and say hurtful things. [My son] was an infant. What was I gonna do?”
Fortunately for Hubert, she had something else to fight for. “He saved me. He really did. My son. Because I knew I had to take care of that little boy,” she further explained to PopViewers. “‘Fresh Prince’ had not gone into syndication yet, so there was no money for a few years until they did enough episodes to make syndication. I was in the third season negotiating for the fourth season. It was hard. There were moments when I felt so broken. So low. I didn’t know what I could do. There were moments where I wanted to die.”
The veteran actress has bounced back however and will be starring in the upcoming film Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. The film will also star Ledisi as the famed gospel singer and Columbus Short as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Check out her interview with PopViewers Chris Witherspoon on the next page.
