The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air first catapulted on to our screens in 1990.
It wasn’t long before the beloved show became a cult classic and launched Will Smith to stardom at the age of 21. The up-and-coming rapper with little acting experience went on to become one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time.
He was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards after the show came to an end in 1996. But it wasn’t always plain sailing between the cast backstage.
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As fans mark the programme’s 34th anniversary, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside the gruelling feud that has been accused of totally destroying the career of one of the show’s stars.
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Janet Hubert, 65, portrayed Aunt Viv on the show until 1993 when she was abruptly replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid. Daphne remained in the role until the show came to a dramatic end in 1996, reports the Mirror.
Following Janet’s exit, Will Smith, now 52, made some controversial comments on a radio station about his former co-star. He told listeners: “I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show because I know she is going to dog me in the press.
“She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She’s mad now but she’s been mad all along. She said once, ‘I’ve been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.'”
(Image: NBC Universal, Inc.)
He went on: “No matter what, to her I’m just the Antichrist.” However, Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks, Aunt Viv’s son, accused Janet of “going off on people” on set.
During a stand-up set in 2009, the 49-year-old explained that everyone he worked with was great, except his character’s “first mom, not so much.” He went on: “You know, legally I’m not allowed to talk about it. But hey, why not?
“Basically, at the end of the day, the [he bleeped himself] was crazy. I did not curse…She went nuts! Long story short, there were days when we were all on the set and she would literally go off on people and they got to a point by the time the second season came around where we’re like, ‘This is unacceptable.'”
(Image: Getty Images)
He added: “We felt like, when we were doing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that we were a family…She, at that point, ruined that, and she made it very difficult for us to work, and unfortunately she was then fired.
“They brought in Daphne Maxwell-Reid, who we absolutely loved, and we moved on. Oh well.” At the time, some of the audience members booed Alfonso, meanwhile others retorted: “She was funny. She was a very talented actress.” But he then cruelly added: “Cuckoo! ”
In 2010, Janet accused Will of making colourist jokes on set. She told BlackAmericaWeb: “I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the ‘you’re-so-black’ jokes to the audience before the show.
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
“And at one point, I came out and stopped him. He didn’t understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me.”
The following year, their feud was back in the headlines after Will released a photo with his former castmates which he captioned a “Fresh Prince reunion” – which Janet invited to. In response to reunion speculations, Janet declared to TMZ: “There will never be a reunion … as I will never do anything with an a****** like Will Smith.
“He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn’t know the word.”
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Years later, the actress admitted she regretted her statement in 2013, explaining her mother had recently passed when she gave the interview. Janet told Grio, addressing her comments about Will directly: “You’ve done some things, you’ve said some things, that were totally untrue…
“I’ve said some things that I probably should have never said.” Just when fans thought the pair had drawn a line in the sand, she re-sparked a feud between the pair on The Real.
She insisted: “Janet Hubert was never difficult on that set. Janet Hubert was so professional, it wasn’t even funny. I think Will simply needed to win and I think sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and those things never happened.”
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Her animosity also extended to Alfonso Ribeiro, whom she branded an “a**wipe” after he reposted a reunion image that didn’t include her. In 2018, Will appeared to want to bury the hatchet, telling Radio 1Xtra in 2018: “I think as an artist there’s so many things that [Janet] does…
“She sings, she dances, she’s like a really powerful artist. I loved what she brought to The Fresh Prince.” But the actor would not apologise for his past comments for the “lies” she accused him of spreading.
In an interview with Huffington Post’s Black Voices section, Janet said that Will and Afonso destroyed her career. She said: “My departure was planned for a long time…
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
“There will never be a reunion of the Fresh Prince. Will Smith and Alfonso destroyed a 20-year-career with untruths. I got slammed.”
However, in 2020, Janet, Will and Alfonso finally reunited in person for an HBO show. The pair aired their grievances in an attempt to bury their feud after 27 years.
Janet explained to Will that her decision to leave the show was due to her being pregnant and trapped in an “abusive marriage” when filming for the third series began. She revealed: “When I left the show, I had this new baby and no-one.
(Image: Getty Images for ESSENCE)
“Family disowned me. Hollywood disowned me. My family said, ‘You’ve ruined our name. And I wasn’t unprofessional on the set; I just stopped talking to everybody, because I didn’t know who to trust, because I had been banished. And they said it was you who banished me.”
In response, Will, who has three children himself, admitted he could understand how she might have felt alone during her pregnancy. Janet retorted: “Those words, calling a black woman ‘difficult’ in Hollywood is the kiss of death.
“And it’s hard enough for a dark-skinned black woman in this business. You took all that away from me with your words, words can kill. I lost everything,”.
(Image: Red Table Talks)
Will confessed to Janet that he felt as if she hated him, to which Janet responded: “I hated what you did. I just hated what you did. You took my career away of 30-something years.”
“You just went too far when you were younger and I know you always had to win.” Will conceded he “went way too far” and remarked that his comments were taken out of context and magnified.
Janet recounted their falling-out led to “30 years of shunning” and equated her experience with a “30-year life sentence.” “I’m so tired from all of this,” she added, further alleging the fallout with Will caused her child to face bullying.
(Image: Red Table Talk)
Will explained his comedic side was a “defence mechanism” born out of a challenging childhood. He admitted that he projected his familial patterns onto The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, especially with Janet as she took on a maternal role on set.
He confessed feeling daunted by Janet, acknowledging her as a Julliard-trained, remarkably talented individual. The doting dad admitted how he “desperately needed” her validation but was upset not to gain it.
Will told her: “I could not do a 30-year celebration of this show and not celebrate you, celebrate your contribution to the show, celebrate your contribution to my life.” In a tear-jerking moment, the pair embraced each out as they put their feud to bed.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
