After speaking out about her own struggles with alopecia,Jada Pinkett Smithis meeting with some of the millions of people and their families dealing with the same condition.
“With the hair loss, she was so strong,” Ball says of Rio in this exclusive clip from the episode. “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.”
Rio then asked, “can we just shave my head?” Ball says. “And so we did. And she just GLOWED.”
(L-R) Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Niki Ball.Jordan Fisher
“And then with school coming up, we got her that super cute wig, she loved it, and she glowed then,” Ball 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.”
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The kids at school called Rio a “naked mole rat,” a “bug-eyed alien” and “Mr. and Mrs. Clean.”
Ball says that three weeks before her death, Rio “had a really bad day” at school and “just lost it” when she got in the car to go home. “I knew this was very serious,” Ball says.
RELATED VIDEO: Dad Lets Daughter With Alopecia Shave His Head
She spoke with the teachers and administrators at Rio’s school, and talked to Rio about how much the people around her loved her, saying that she had “an army of people” on her side.
“She was so smart. She was just brilliant,” Ball says. “And she was funny. She was a great big sister. She loved reading and writing and sketching. She loved being in the band.”
(L-R) Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Niki Ball.Jordan Fisher
As Pinkett Smith cries along with Ball, she tells her that Rio’s story is one of the reasons why people “need an understanding around the devastation of this condition.”
A new episode of the Emmy-winningRed Table Talkon alopecia will stream Wednesday, June 1 at 9am PT/12pm ET on Facebook Watch.
source: people.com
