Photo:Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Adrienne Banfield-Norris, better known as “Gammy,” had never been in front of the camera before her hit talk showRed Table Talkwith her daughter,Jada Pinkett Smith, and her granddaughter,Willow Smith.
Prior to her Emmy-winning discussions about a variety of topics, the Baltimore native worked as a nurse for decades — even while she was addicted to heroin, as she noted on the podcastDr. Jackie’sPoint of Vin 2021. Banfield-Norris has been open about her recovery from addiction on the show, and she and her husbandRodney Norrisbonded over their similar journeys to clean living. In December 2022, shecelebrated 32 years of clean living.
Banfield-Norris and her daughter haven’t always had the easiest relationship, partly due to her past drug use. “I had parents who were addicted to drugs," Pinkett Smithtold PEOPLE for her cover storyin October 2023. “Not having [a healthy] foundation, as I would come to find out way into my adulthood, had some really strong effects in regard to how I saw myself.”
Despite their early struggles, she and Banfield-Norris have developed a close bond today. Pinkett Smith posted a lovingInstagram tributeto her mother on Mother’s Day 2021. “Thank you Great Divine for my mother Adrienne,” she wrote. “You blessed me with the PERFECT Mother. She has provided for me … EVERYTHING You intended.”
So who is the popular co-host ofRed Table Talk? Here’s everything to know about Jada Pinkett Smith’s mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
She’s from Baltimore
ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty
She became pregnant with Pinkett Smith when she was in high school
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
Banfield-Norris became pregnant with her daughter while she was in her last year of high school. She explained onDr. Jackie’s Point of Vthat in her “affluent” family, having a child out of wedlock was unacceptable. “It was a disgrace to the family,” Banfield-Norris said. “So I married very young. I married when I was still in high school.”
Pinkett Smith’s father,Robsol Pinkett Jr., died from an overdose in 2010. According to Banfield-Norris, she was married to him for “about a year if it lasted that long.” During a 2018episode ofRed Table Talk, she and Pinkett Smith discussed Robsol living with addiction and thedomestic abuse Banfield-Norris endured. “I knew that my mother and my father had a very violent relationship early on,” Pinkett Smith said. “She has a couple scars on her body.”
Banfield-Norris said that her former husband was “typically in an altered state” when he abused her, but she noted that that didn’t excuse the behavior.
She’s open about her sobriety journey
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
On Dec. 22, 2022, Banfield-Norris celebrated 32 years of sobriety. “Today I celebrate 32 years free from all mind & mood altering chemicals,” shewrote on Instagram. “Clean, not always serene but forever grateful! God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Banfield-Norris opened up about her addiction during a July 2018 episode ofRed Table Talk. The host and podcaster shared that she used heroin for more than 20 years, and it was not an easy topic for her to discuss. She explained that she initially stopped using heroin for a man. “At that time, I didn’t think I was anything without a man,” Banfield-Norris recalled. “It’s sad to say that I did it for a man.”
Eventually, she decided to stay clean for herself. “I had to come to the understanding that there was a power,” she said. “That God had been looking out for us, you and me both, through all of that. And I just had to let go and surrender so I could receive what he was trying to give to me, through other people.” The former nurse added that the stigma around addiction makes it difficult for people to get better, and she’d like to change that.
While speaking to PEOPLE in 2019, Banfield-Norris shared how she managed to hide her habit from her daughter until middle school. “I would be nodding at the table, and it didn’t take her long to realize, ‘She’s not tired, she’s high,’ ” she recalled of Pinkett Smith.
“People have this idea that addicts are poor, don’t come from anything and are kind of worthless people, but I came from an upper-middle-class family, and we were extremely well-respected in the community,” she continued. “Addiction attacks all races, all creeds, no matter your religion, no matter your background, financial circumstances or profession.”
She used to be a head nurse
Adrienne Banfield Norris Instagram
Banfield-Norris graduated at the top of her nursing school class at Coppin State University, and she worked as the head nurse of a Baltimore clinic for decades, according toThe Baltimore Sun. The host toldRolling Stonethat she left nursing afterRed Table Talkbecame a full-time job.
She discussed the importance of women having careers and financial independence onDr. Jackie’s Point of V. “I was a nurse, and I was able to create a career for myself,” she said. “And I knew if I got divorced that I was gonna be okay. I didn’t need anybody to take care of me.”
In 2013, Pinkett Smith told the magazineMinority Nursethat her mother’s nursing skills amazed her. “She was there with me a couple of times where we’ve had some medical emergencies in the house with [my] kids and [it amazes me] how automatically she goes into this analytical mode of focus,” the actress said. “She just is a great problem solver.”
She gives her daughter important advice
Over the years, Banfield-Norris has offered her daughter both life- and career-saving advice. When Pinkett Smith was 20 years old, she traveled to Italy and almost accepted an invitation from astranger to go on his boat. Fortunately, she called her mother first to check in about that decision.
“Remember when the valet said to me, ‘I have a boat, I want to take you out to dinner?’ ” Pinkett Smith asked Banfield-Norris onRed Table Talk. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I’m in Italy! I’m 20,’ you know what I’m saying?”
At the time, Banfield-Norris told her daughter, “You are not getting on no boat with nobody,” adding: “If something happens to you, nobody’s gonna hear you. You’re gonna be in the middle of nowhere. Do not — Jada!”
Banfield-Norris has also stepped in to help with work situations. When Pinkett Smith starred in the medical dramaHawthorne, Banfield-Norris took issue with how medical practices were portrayed on the show — and the medical advisory team changed as a result.
“There were some minor things as far as nursing care and nursing techniques that were off-kilter,” Banfield-Norris toldthe AFROin 2010. “I would give [Jada] my suggestions and basically what she did at the end of the season was kind of revamp her medical advisory team.”
She’s married to Rodney Norris
Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
Banfield-Norris married her husbandRodney Norrisin 2016. He is her fourth husband and thepresident and CEO of Positive Pathways, a nonprofit that serves adults with developmental disabilities. The couple opened up about their relationship during an August 2022 episode of theOprah WinfreyNetwork docuseriesBlack Love.
TheRed Table Talkhost remembered that she was “head over heels” when she reconnected with her husband decades after they first dated. “I don’t know that I necessarily needed marriage,” she reflected. “I just wanted to be with him, I just wanted to see where it could go. I just was crazy about him. I am crazy about him.”
Norris shared that their experiences with addiction and sobriety brought them closer together. “I don’t think I had ever experienced a relationship on that level,” he said. “We would talk about everything and anything, and I think that was because we had both been in recovery and had done a lot of self-work.”
Banfield-Norris added, “For Rodney and I, [we] have been stronger because of the struggles that we’ve been through.”
She co-hostsRed Table Talkwith her daughter and granddaughter
Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic
Banfield-Norris hosts the popular talk showRed Table Talkalongside her daughter and her granddaughter. The show premiered in 2018 on Facebook Watch, and since then, the women have covered everything fromporn addictiontoPinkett Smith’s relationshipwithWill Smithto theVarsity Blues scandal. “To be able to sit [as] three Black women and see the variety of perspectives is really interesting, because I know a lot of people just like to put Black women in one big old pot,” Pinkett Smith toldRolling Stonein 2021. “That myth has to be dissolved.”
The multigenerational trio has spoken with a variety of A-listers over the years, includingSnoop Dogg,Tiffany Haddish,Matthew McConaughey,Demi Mooreand more. The series won aDaytime Emmyfor outstanding informative talk show in 2021.
In April 2023, Meta shut down Facebook Watch, and as a result,Red Table Talkwas canceled. The producers are currently searching for a “new home” forRed Table Talk,and the hosts said in astatement on Instagram, “We are so grateful to have had such a beautiful partnership with Facebook Watch, and we are so sorry to see the entire team disband.”
Banfield-Norris also has in-depth discussions with various guests on her own podcast,Positively Gam.Over two seasons, its topics have included masculinity, aging and failure, among others.
She and Pinkett Smith have not always had a perfect relationship
Jason Mendez/Getty
Banfield-Norris toldThe New York Timesthat she rejects the idea that she and Pinkett have an “amazing mother-daughter relationship.” She shared: “It absolutely is not. And I don’t think that we’ve ever tried to portray it that way. I think people want to believe that it is that.” During Pinkett Smith’s childhood, Banfield-Norris dealt with addiction and her daughter observed the abuse that her father inflicted on her mother.
On aMay 2022 episodeofRed Table Talk, Pinkett Smith opened up about missing physical affection in her relationship with her mother. “She never cuddledwith me,” Pinkett Smith shared. Banfield-Norris added: “Very rarely will you see Jada and I even touch, hug. It’s awkward because we didn’t hug in our family. We knew we were loved, but it just wasn’t that kind of nurturing touch.”
Banfield-Norris’ relationship with her daughter is more complicated than the one she has with her granddaughter Willow, which she called “lighthearted and fun.”
Despite their sometimes rocky past, Banfield-Norris explained that she and Pinkett Smith are able to have a relationship now because her daughter witnessed her growth. “People have to actually see and experience the change in you,” Banfield-Norris toldThe New York Times. “And that’s what Jada saw. That’s what Jada saw in me.”
source: people.com
