Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are reportedly unhappy about the $3 million lawsuit that a former friend recently filed against Pinkett Smith, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
‘They are really mad and say it’s a lot of crap’
Blavity reported that the plaintiff, Bilaal Salaam, filed the legal complaint against Pinkett Smith on Nov. 7, claiming that she and several members of her team approached him in the lobby of the Regency Calabasas Commons in September 2021. She allegedly threatened that if he continued “telling her personal business,” he would “end up missing or catch a bullet.”
In response to the complaint, an unnamed source close to the Hollywood couple told People that they believe Salaam’s claims are baseless and that he is only seeking financial gain.
“They are really mad and say it’s a lot of crap,” the source told the outlet, calling Salaam “an opportunistic person out to exploit them.”
The couple views the complaint “as a money ploy to get what they can out of them,” the source added. “Naturally, both of them dislike people around them talking out of school.”
Did Salaam receive more threats?
Salaam also alleged in the complaint that Pinkett Smith “demanded” he sign a nondisclosure agreement, “or else.” He also claimed that someone from her team followed him to his car and continued hurling verbal threats at him.
He alleged that he received heightened threats after he denied requests from members of the couple’s circle to help Smith after the infamous Oscar slap against Chris Rock.
Salaam then accused the couple of launching a “retaliatory campaign” against him after they learned he was writing a “whistleblower memoir” about their lives and that he revealed details about them in a viral interview. During a 2023 interview with Unwine With Tasha K, Salaam claimed he witnessed Smith and fellow actor Duane Martin allegedly engaged in a sexual act.
Salaam was, allegedly, once a close friend of the Smith family
Pinkett Smith denied those claims to TMZ and in an interview on The Breakfast Club, calling them “ridiculous” and saying that Salaam was doing this to “shake down” her and her husband for money, per Blavity.
“Bilaal has been close to Will for many years but sometime along the way became a blabbermouth which has upset both Will and Jada,” another unnamed source told People. “Like any other high profile people, they don’t want to hear about their lives in the public arena. Especially in a controversial way.”
Salaam is seeking $3 million in financial damages.