Olivia Jade Giannulli appeared on Red Table Talk to open about the arrests of her parents, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, and their involvement in last year’s college admissions scandal.
Interestingly, it also turned into a debate between host Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and her daughter Willow Smith. All three women, Jada revealed “had very different feelings about it” after Olivia Jade approached them.
Adrienne said: “I fought it tooth and nail,” Banfield-Norris, 67, admitted. “I just found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story. I feel like here we are, a white woman coming to Black women for support when we don't get the same from them. It’s bothersome to me on so many levels. Her being here is the epitome of white privilege to me.”
Jada replied, “I understand where you’re coming from but let me just be clear: I never want to be the thing that was done to me by white women.”
Both Lori and Mossimo are currently serving time in prison.
“Let me ask you if you have a clear understanding of what white privilege really is, now,” Adrienne asked Olivia, who said she did, adding she took her life “for granted.”
“It was a big shift in my head knowing, 'OK, let's start recognizing where the wrongs are in that,'” Olivia said.
Adrienne asked the influencer, “Do you understand why different people in the community would be upset? Do you have any understanding of why I would be upset at your being here and what you all did and the harm that it caused?”
“I would also love to hear it from you. I feel like it’s a good learning thing,” Olivia said. “We had the means to do something and we completely took it and ran with it. It really cannot be excused, on paper it’s bad.”
Olivia added: “I just want to apologize for contributing to these social inequalities even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Being able to come here and recognize that I am aware.”
Adrienne seemed unconvinced: “I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted with everything we have to deal with as a community and I just don’t have the energy to put into the fact that you lost your endorsements or you’re not in school right now. Because at the end of the day, you’re going to be OK. Because your parents are going to go in and they’re going to do their 60 days and they’re going to pay their fine, and you guys are going to go on and be OK and you will live your life. And there’s so many of us that it’s not going to be that situation. It just makes it very difficult right now for me to care in this atmosphere that we’re in right now.”