Jada Pinkett Smith is clearing up rumors about her ties to Scientology.
In between bombshell revelations about her relationship with husband Will Smith, the actor unpacks her complicated connection to the controversial organization in her memoir, “Worthy,” which was excerpted by The Messenger on Wednesday.
Talking more generally about her faith, Pinkett Smith says that she has “never been a fan of organized religion,” but didn’t feel negatively about Scientology, like some others.
Considered a religion by U.S. tax standards, Scientology has a strong following across Hollywood but has been called a cult by ex-devotees like Leah Remini and more former followers.
While Pinkett Smith says she was drawn to Scientology’s general teachings, in her book she explains, “I was very clear when I stepped into the Church of Scientology that becoming a member would not be possible, nor was it my goal.”
Still, the star says she “embraced” the church’s “Basic Study Manual” while homeschooling her children, Jaden and Willow Smith.
She and Smith would eventually go on to found the New Village Leadership Academy in 2008, which used what Pinkett Smith called the church’s “legally secular” curriculum.
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Part of that education plan included Scientology’s Study Tech system, a teaching method developed by Scientology founder and sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard which has been called a “covert religious instruction” by experts.
Former teachers and administrators from the school, which shut down in 2013, felt similarly, describing New Village Leadership Academy as “essentially a Scientology school” in a 2020 investigation by the Daily Beast.
Pinkett Smith shares a different opinion, calling Study Tech “a component for helping a child gain a sense of self-determinism with respect to whatever is being taught.”
Despite facing criticism, the actor says, “Eventually, I stopped paying attention to the criticism and judgment of others about how to raise my kids.”
“There are no cookie-cutter ways to raise children, and the only concern any of us should have is making sure we’re paying attention to what our individual child needs.”
Back in 2018, during an episode of Pinkett Smith’s show, “Red Table Talk,” Will Smith addressed several rumors about them in one swoop, saying, “We’ve never been Scientologists, we’ve never been swingers.”
Half of that claim seemed to get debunked two years later, when it was reported that Pinkett Smith carried on a yearslong affair with recording artist August Alsina ― a so-called “entanglement” which her spouse was aware of.