Will Smith Bought House near Mom & Paid Dad's Child Support to Her - He Feels Guilty for Not Protecting Her at 9

Will Smith is a man of many talents. He rose to fame as a rapper, but now he has sustained an impressive acting career for over three decades and shows no sign of stopping. Besides being among the most respected Hollywood stars, Smith dealt with a lot of guilt and anger from his childhood.

Will Smith is a Philadelphia-born actor and musician who has been part of several record-breaking box-office films and award-winning music.

Smith rose to fame as a rapper and went by "Fresh Prince." He collaborated with a school friend DJ Jazzy Jeff, and they worked their way to being the best hip-hop duo.

They released their first single, "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble," in 1986, and soon after, they had an album, "Rock the House." In 1988, they came out with a song that would open doors for them. The single "Parents Just Don't Understand" was so big that it won a Grammy Award.

Smith was also known for his witty and high-spirited character, which gave him the tools to transition smoothly into acting. His acting debut was a lead role in the iconic TV show 1990 "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire," which was slightly based on Smith's rap persona.

The show took his career to higher heights and opened him up to the world of cinema. He landed his big film role in 1992 on "Where the Day Takes You," followed by "Six degrees of Separation" in 1993, then Smith got to be part of the action-comedy trilogy of "Bad Boys."

From there, Smith cemented himself in the acting industry and became one of Hollywood's most respected and famous actors.

Will Smith's Troubled Childhood

Smith might have built a Hollywood success story, but his childhood was filled with life-altering moments that he learned to dismantle in his adult life.

The actor recently released his memoir, "Will," and went into detail about the making of his successful career and some of the lessons along the way.

One of the significant accounts from Smith's book was the traumatizing event of seeing his mother get beaten by his father to the point where he saw blood come from her mouth.

Smith was only nine years old at the time, but he felt that he should have protected his mother, and for years he carried the guilt of not standing up to his father.

Smith's father, Willard Carroll Smith Sr, and his mom, Caroline Bright, eventually went their separate ways when the actor was in his teens.

Even though his mother had survived her abusive relationship, Smith still beat himself about that day, so he focused that energy on his career.

He earned himself several awards, became one the most spoken about celebrities, and landed tons of roles, but deep down; all of his achievements were an unspoken apology to his mother.

The "Focus" star thought of himself as a failure and coward for not stopping his father that day. However, those built-up feelings of anger and guilt also developed into a character of an invincible and funny movie star.

Smith confessed that he used his fame and wit to carefully construct a character that would hide and suppress all the trauma from his childhood. Then continued to write, "How we respond to our fears is who we become."

The actor turned to humor because he believed that keeping everyone in the house happy and making them laugh would keep his father from resorting to violence.

It was a creative way of protecting his mother and doing his best to keep the peace. But it also transformed into a way to hide his true feelings from the world.

Smith went on to win the Best Actor Award and dedicated it to his mother. He delivered an emotional speech about how grateful he was to be able to provide for his mother, wife, and children.

The coping mechanism that Smith created also translated on stage, which is the reason behind the record-breaking box office films and the many accolades.

But all the praise he received for his talent never felt enough because he kept believing he was a coward and that he had failed at the most important role of his life, which is being a protector. Smith had kept everything about what that night did to him from his mother and only revealed it to her when it came up in his book.

Bright assured her son that there was nothing Smith could have done to protect her. She also made him aware that thinking he needed to carry her abuse was a trauma response from which he needed to heal.

His mother also confessed that she tried to be more assertive with his father, hoping it would stop his violence, but it did not. She also did not want her children to see her frail because she did not want them to worry.

Paying His Own Child Support

Despite the turmoil that his father put him through, Smith was still very much protective of his parents. He calls his mother's mom-mom and dad Daddio.

Smith found himself between a rock and a hard place when he had to save his father from going to jail and get his mother the money he owed her.

The actor explained that he was helping his mom-mom move into her dream home, and as they were packing up, they found divorce papers they had never signed.

It became clear to Bright that she and her husband were still married even though they had been separated for years. So, she signed the papers and filed them.

Filing the papers revealed that Smith's father owned $140,000 in child support. The actor said Daddio had always taken care of them but never paid any child support, so when the bill came, he knew he did not have that kind of money.

Additionally, if his father did not pay, he would have ended up in jail as per Pennsylvania law, and his mother was adamant about getting her cheque.

The actor was not about to let his father be jailed, so Smith transferred the $140,000 to him without his mother knowing, and Daddio paid the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In doing that, Smith said, "This made me the first person in the history of Pennsylvania to pay their own child support." But his mother broke a record too. After she found out that Smith was the one that paid the $140,000, she paid it back to him.

Therefore, she became the first woman in Pennsylvania to pay back her child support and to pay her child back their child support. Bright and Willard were officially divorced in 2000.

Smith's father died in 2016, and his death came with many lessons. In the midst of their complicated reality, Smith was also amazed at how his father could be so violent and be the most present father.

He said his father was an alcoholic, but he would attend all his games, recitals, or movie premiers and show up sober. Daddio also listened to every song his son made.

Smith believed his father struggled with perfectionism which led to a lot of harm, but at the same time, it was the reason Smith had a roof over his head and food on the table each night.

Even in his adult years, Smith struggled with suppressing the terrible thoughts and promises he made to himself when he was nine-years-old.

In his memoir, he gives another brutally honest account of what he thought of doing to his dad. He recalled wheeling his father from the bedroom to the bathroom, and on the way, he passed a satire case.

He looked down at the stairs and was adorned by a darkness that almost convinced him to get away with his father's murder. For a second, he thought of pushing him down those stairs, but he realized that a lot of it came from his pent-up anger.

Additionally, nine-year-old him promised himself to hurt his father when he was old enough to stand up to him and silence the voice that told him he was a coward.

While the thought crossed his mind, Smith never acted on it. But after his father's death, he learned that none of the materialistic things and the person he built around them gave him the peace he had been seeking most of his life.

Smith said, "In the end, it will not matter one single bit how people loved you - you will only gain 'the Smile" based on how well you loved them. "

Will Smith's Properties

In 1997, Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, got married, and that same year, they purchased a house in Pennsylvania. The couple bought their 6000-square-foot home for $937,500. Smith and his wife never lived at that house, but it is where the "Alladine" star grew up and started his career.

However, the mansion was sold. Smith reportedly bought the house when he was just at the peak of his stardom, but it was later sold to two owners.

The property ended up abandoned, but people loved to view it. It reportedly still has a lot of personal items like vintage music records, personal documents, expensive cameras, and more.

It is a 5000-square-foot mansion and sits on a massive 30 acres of land. Even if it does not have anyone living in it, it is still exciting to many fans that a legendary actor from Philadelphia once owned it, and it feels like a time capsule.

A year after buying his 6000-square-foot home, he purchased another house in Pennsylvania. This time the Smith couple spent $700,000 on a 2162-square-foot abode.

There is not much information about the home and who lives in it, but Smith made it clear that you can take him out of 'Philly,' but you cannot take Philly out of him.

However, Smith and Pinkett did plant their roots in Calabasas, California. They purchased 150 acres of land in 2003 and built their dream home.

It took seven years to build their 25,000-square-foot mansion, and in the end, they landed with eight bedrooms, an eight-car garage, a movie theatre, and a recording studio, where his daughter Williow reportedly recorded her hit, "Whip my Hair."

The house has a meditation room, pool, basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts. The property is so big that it has its own zip code.

There is no information on how much the Smith family spent on this building, but the house was reportedly put on the market for $42 million in 2014 but was quickly taken down.

To add to his property portfolio, Smith bought another house in California in 2021. The home is in Hidden Hills and costs $11,3 million. It has six bedrooms and seven and a half bathrooms.

The house sits on 1,19 acres of land and is 10,417 square feet big. It also has a full wine fridge, a wet bar, a soundproof movie theatre, and a game room.

Despite the multiple properties, Smith has ensured that his mother lives close to him. This way, he gets to have his loved ones close to him.