ERIK REALMONGER

Will Smith's TV aunt was making about $250,000 a year. In 1993, she lost all of it. Will went on the radio and said she'd gone "from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing." She had a newborn baby at home. She didn't speak to him for 27 years. In the video below, Janet Hubert finally says it to his face: "You took all that away from me with your words." In 1993, she was offered a new contract. About two and a half months of work a year, less money, and no other jobs allowed. Her husband was out of work. She says the marriage was abusive. She said no. The new season opened with a joke. Jazz said something was different about Aunt Viv since she had the baby. On that Atlanta radio show, Will added: "She's mad now, but she's been mad all along." The word that followed her was "difficult." For a Black woman in Hollywood, she says, it's "the kiss of death." She says she lost "everything. Reputation, everything." The case for Will: he was in his early 20s, carrying his first show. The contract came from the producers, not from him. And she turned it down. 27 years later, he told her: "The person I want to be is someone who protects you, not someone that unleashes dogs on you." He went on to make $20 million per movie. She waited 28 years for her next recurring TV role. So did Will Smith ruin Aunt Viv's career, or did she ruin it herself?