Jada Pinkett Smith Talks To Mother Of 12-Year-Old Girl With Alopecia Who Died By Suicide
etcanada.comJada Pinkett Smith is getting real about alopecia. In a preview of Wednesday’s new “Red Table Talk” shared by People, the “Matrix Resurrections” star, along with daughter Willow and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, speak with Niki Ball, the mother of a 12-year-old girl who suffered from alopecia and died by suicide in March. READ MORE: Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Lack of Protection Is ‘Biggest Wound’ That Comes Out In Her Relationships Ball’s daughter, Rio, was bullied due to her hair loss from alopecia, a condition Pinkett Smith also suffers from. “With the hair loss, she was so strong,” Ball says of her daughter. “She still rocked it even when it was falling out, and she just had these big bald patches.
Tried the creams. They made her break out. Tried the injections, she took five of them in one day. But neither of them really did anything.” The mother recalls Rio asking, “can we just shave my head?” “And so we did.
And she just glowed,” Ball says. “And then with school coming up, we got her that super cute wig, she loved it, and she glowed then,” she continues. “But at school, within a couple of weeks, she was like, ‘I don’t want to wear it anymore, there’s no point.’ She had it ripped off her head.
She’d get smacked upside on the head walking down the hallway. And that was within the first two weeks, three weeks. It got really bad for her.” READ MORE: Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Her Mother Adrienne Banfield Norris Wasn’t Affectionate Growing Up: ‘She Never Cuddled With Me’ Despite having support from teachers and administrators, as well as other friends and family, Rio sadly died by suicide on March 14.
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