HBO Max's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion brings the cast of the comedy series together again nearly 25 years after the show concluded its six-season run. During the special, Will Smith apologized to Janet Hubert, the original access to portray Aunt Viv, for his role in her being fired from the series.
Hubert had portrayed Aunt Vivian for the first three seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air until she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid for the remainder of the sitcom's run. At the time, Hubert's departure was attributed to her pregnancy, an alleged breach of her contract, but Smith has since cited difficulties working with Hubert that occurred long before she became pregnant as the reason for her termination. In the ensuing years, both Smith and Hubert have publicly criticized each other over their respective handling of the situation, with Hubert previously refusing to participate in reunion events.
Decades later, Smith and Hubert have reconciled after a conversation during the Fresh Prince Reunion in which Hubert opened up about the circumstances leading up to her firing. "During that third season when I got pregnant, there were a lot of things going on in my life and Will's life as well," Hubert said. "Home life was not good at all. I was no longer laughing, smiling, joking because there were things going on that nobody knew about. Cast had no idea what was going on." Hubert then revealed that she was in an abusive relationship with an unemployed husband at the time while caring for her newborn child, only to have to turn down a new deal to return to The Fresh Prince that would have cut her salary and prevented her from working elsewhere. "I was hurt deeply," she said before detailing how the reports of her uncooperative behavior impacted her career and personal life. "When I left the show, I had this new baby and no one. 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. Because you were Will. It was hard."
During a separate confessional, Smith acknowledged his own role in the difficult working relationship between the two actors. "During that time of her pregnancy, I wasn't sensitive, I wasn't perceptive, and now that I've had three kids I've learned some things that I did not know at the time and I would do things very differently. But I can see where I made the set very difficult for Janet," he admitted. After Smith explained that he viewed everything as a threat to him at the time and was motivated by fear, he told Hubert that he now recognizes the pain she experienced during the third season of The Fresh Prince, having gone through a divorce himself since then. "But you took all of that away from me—with your words. Words can kill. I lost everything. Reputation. Everything. And I understand you were able to move forward, but you know those words, calling a Black woman difficult in Hollywood, is the kiss of death," Hubert said in response. "And it's hard enough being a dark-skinned Black woman in this business. But I felt that it was necessary for us to finally move forward. And I'm sorry that I have blasted you to pieces." The reconciliation concluded with Smith apologizing and telling Hubert, "You're still my Aunt Viv."
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is set to return to television as a drama series for NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service. Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith will serve as executive producers on the new series with filmmaker Morgan Cooper, who wrote and directed the Bel-Air fan film on which the reboot is based.
The Fresh Prince reboot joins a growing list of sitcoms from the '80s and '90s that are being revived in one form or another for a modern audience. In fact, Peacock is already set to premiere a reboot of Saved by the Bell in late November.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion is now available on HBO Max.
Source: The Loop