Jada Pinkett Smith’s Mom Says Self-Quarantine 'Put Me Back in Touch' with Narcotics Anonymous Meetings
Adrienne Banfield Norris is spending her self-quarantine in a special way.
In a PEOPLE exclusive clip of this week’s Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, the mother of Jada Pinkett Smith and co-host of the show opens up about overcoming heroin addiction 29 years ago.
“I celebrated 29 years in December, so I’m in my 30th year,” Banfield Norris, 67, told Pinkett Smith, 48, and her granddaughter Willow Smith, 19, in the clip. “It’s been a long time since I had to rely on going to meetings daily.”
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the trio has quarantined, which has caused Banfield Norris to revisit one of her sobriety practices.
“The quarantine, believe it or not, actually put me back in touch with going to NA meetings,” she said of the Narcotics Anonymous meetings she’s been attending. “My sponsor actually called me and let me know there were meetings online. I went back to my old homegroup back in Baltimore. It was such a good feeling.”
Facebook Watch Adrienne Banfield Norris
Banfield Norris has been open on the show about her addiction and journey to sobriety. In July 2018, she and Pinkett Smith discussed Banfield Norris’ struggle with drug use which lasted over 20 years.
“It’s difficult to talk about something that is gonna go out to the world,” she said previously. “I couldn’t hide the unmanageability of my life, and the emotional and the spiritual damage I did to myself and to her. That was devastating. I abused drugs for over 20 years.”
Banfield Norris said she decided to get clean when the opportunity for a relationship with a man she was interested in opened up.
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“At that time, I didn’t think I was anything without a man. So I had this man come back in my life. It’s sad to say that I did it for a man,” she admitted.
Banfield Norris said she eventually got to the point where she was doing it for herself and leaned into religion.
“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.”
Red Table Talk airs Wednesdays on Facebook Watch at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET.