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Will Smith just confessed that he once contemplated taking his own life. The 53-year-old Fresh Prince of Bel Air star can be heard making the heartbreaking revelation in the trailer for the Will Smith: The Best Shape of My Life YouTube docuseries, during a personal conversation with his family about his upcoming memoir, Will.
The six-part unscripted docuseries, which debuts on November 8th on Smith’s YouTube channel, is initially about the Men in Black actor’s journey as he attempts to transform his body and lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks, while also working on his memoir at the same time. He first made a comment about his appearance on May 3rd earlier this year, when he took to Instagram to share a picture of himself posing in a jacket and his underwear, and captioned it: “I’m gonna be real wit y’all – I’m in the worst shape of my life.”
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One day later, he teased the docuseries by writing the following caption, alongside a short video of himself posing in just a pair of black underwear, and nothing else: “This is the body that carried me through an entire pandemic and countless days grazing thru the pantry. I love this body, but I wanna FEEL better. No more midnight muffins…this is it! Imma get in the BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE!!!!! Teaming up with @YouTube to get my health & wellness back on track. Hope it works!”
However, it’s not his physical health, but rather, his mental health journey that has been the most eye-opening part of the docuseries. “When I started this show, I thought I was getting into the best shape of my life, physically,” he says in the trailer. “But, mentally, I was somewhere else. And, I ended up discovering a whole lot of hidden things about myself.” Also in the trailer, he can be heard saying, “I don’t want to do any of this. I’m finished with the Best Shape of My Life.” We can’t wait to find out more!
The trailer also features Smith discussing his upcoming memoir Will, which is out on November 9th. He said that writing the book was "exposing a lot of things" and will reveal "so many things that people don't know" about his life. It was while he was sitting down with some close friends and family – including his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and their children, son Jaden, 23, and daughter Willow, 21 – and talking about the memoir that he made the shocking revelation about potentially ending his life. He says: "That was the only time in my life that I ever considered suicide."
At present, we don’t know anything else about the devastating moment, but hope to find out more in the docuseries and in the memoir. The first two episodes of the docuseries will debut on November 8th, while the remaining four episodes will stream daily until the final episode airs on November 12th.
