One of Will Smith’s former associates filed a lawsuit against Jada Pinkett Smith over claims that she threatened him. Pinkett Smith and Smith’s personal lives have made headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent years.
Along with Smith slapping Chris Rock on live TV at the Oscars when the comedian dissed his wife, the famous couple announced two years ago that they had separated in 2016 but are not pursuing a divorce.
Now they’re back in the news over another scandalous incident. People obtained a lawsuit filed by Bilaal Salaam, who’s been best friends with Smith for almost 40 years and is now accusing Pinkett Smith of threatening him starting in 2021.
He’s suing her for $3 million over alleged emotional and financial distress (including his career being derailed), health concerns and ruining his reputation.
On September 25, 2021, six months before the infamous Oscars slap, Smith celebrated his birthday with a private event at the Regency Calabasas Commons in California. While there, Salaam found himself face-to-face with Pinkett Smith and several members of her entourage.
According to Salaam, the actress allegedly “became verbally aggressive” and warned him that if he continued “telling her personal business,” he’d “catch a bullet.”
When Salaam tried to go to his car, Pinkett Smith and her team continued hurling “verbal threats” at him and even tried to get him to sign an NDA (nondisclosure agreement). It’s unclear if Salaam actually signed the document.
[Pinkett Smith] became verbally aggressive, and threatened Plaintiff by stating that if he continued ‘telling her personal business,’ [Salaam would] end up missing or catch a bullet.’
The alleged confrontations didn’t end there. In March 2022, he was asked to help out with “crisis management” that involved performing tasks he thought were “illegal, unethical or morally compromising.” It appears that the crisis management is connected to Smith’s Oscars slap that same month. Salaam refused to get himself entangled in any type of cover-up or “deceptive PR campaign.”
Plaintiff refused to perform tasks he believed were illegal, unethical, or morally compromising, stating his conscience would not allow him to be involved in any cover-up or deceptive PR campaign.
Turning down that offer resulted in an alleged “retaliatory campaign” against Salaam by those close to both Pinkett Smith and Smith. When word got out that he was working on a memoir that would expose the two actors, he had to deal with even more alleged threats.
While it’s unknown if or when the alleged threats stopped, Salaam’s lawsuit noted that the “smear campaign” continued after he gave an interview in 2023 claiming that Smith was sexually involved with Duane Martin, which both Smith and Pinkett Smith denied ever happened.
They vowed to sue Salaam over the accusation, but according to Salaam, nothing was ever filed in court, with the threat of a suit acting as a way to allegedly “manipulate public opinion.”
Salaam’s lawsuit is just the latest stunning development in the Smiths’ lives. What should have been a celebratory night at the Oscars in 2022 (when Smith won Best Actor for playing Richard Williams in King Richard) turned into a PR nightmare for the actor as he was forced to deal with the fallout from slapping Rock.
Smith is banned from the Oscars for 10 years.
Smith has tried to continue his acting and music careers. He starred in Bad Boys: Ride or Die in 2024 and will voice a character in the next Ice Age movie. Smith also released a new album in early 2025. Pinkett Smith, meanwhile, hasn’t done much acting in recent years, but she did release a book in 2023.
As the two celebrities attempt to move forward after various scandals, they’ve got one more to deal with. Neither Jada Pinkett Smith nor Will Smith has reacted to Salaam’s lawsuit.
- Birthdate
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September 18, 1971
- Birthplace
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Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Height
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5 feet 0 inches
