Janet Hubert, the original Aunt Viv, sat down for a recent interview where she spoke in-depth about the aftermath of being forced to walk away from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Hubert says following her exit, she struggled to keep things together financially, and her personal relationships also suffered.
“You’re only as good as the last job you ever did,” she told Chris Witherspoon on “PopViewers,” “We also know that you can make money and the next day you can have no money. I also had just opened up a studio. I signed a 10-year lease at like $60,000 to $100,000 worth of equipment,” she went on. “I had a franchise to develop. I not only had a house, a mortgage, a husband who wasn’t working at the time, I also had a business and a baby, an infant who needed me desperately.”
Hubert explained that she struggled with dark thoughts but that her son kept her focused.
“He saved me. He really did. My son. Because I knew I had to take care of that little boy. ‘Fresh Prince’ had not gone into syndication yet, so there was no money for a few years until they did enough episodes to make syndication. I was in the third season negotiating for the fourth season. It was hard. There were moments when I felt so broken. So low. I didn’t know what I could do. There were moments where I wanted to die.”
Witherspoon then asked Hubert whether she’d considered suicide:
“Absolutely, because I figured I had a life insurance policy that would take care of my son. Because you figured… I’m not gonna make it. I can’t live through this. This is too much. People would attack. People would say things. People would say hurtful things, but he was an infant. What was I going to do?” she explained.
Watch the full interview below.
