NEWSWill Smith's 'Best Friend of Nearly 40 Years' Claims Jada Pinkett Smith Threatened His Life in Bombshell $3 Million Lawsuit
Will Smith’s longtime 'friend' is suing Jada Pinkett Smith for $3 million, claiming she threatened him.
Dec. 2 2025, Published 7:28 a.m. ET
Will Smith’s longtime friend is taking his feud with Jada Pinkett Smith to the courtroom.
Bilaal Salaam, who calls himself Will’s “best friend for nearly 40 years,” has filed a $3 million lawsuit claiming Jada threatened him after he repeated details about her private life.
Bilaal Salaam is allegedly Will Smith's 'best friend' of 40 years.
According to the filing submitted on November 7, the alleged confrontation went down at Will’s birthday party on September 25, 2021, at the Regency Calabasas Common.
The lawsuit stated, per an outlet, that “while in the lobby, Jada Pinkett Smith approached Plaintiff with approximately seven members of her entourage, became verbally aggressive, and threatened Plaintiff by stating that if he continued ‘telling her personal business,’ he would ‘end up missing or catch a bullet,’ and demanded he sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) ‘or else.’”
Bilaal also claimed that someone from Jada’s team followed him to his car and kept the “verbal threats” going as he tried to leave.
The lawsuit conveyed that things only got worse after Will’s Oscar slap in 2022.
Bilaal Salaam is suing Jada Pinkett Smith for $3 million.
In March 2022, Bilaal alleged Jada launched “a retaliatory campaign” against him when he declined to help her with crisis management after the Chris Rock incident.
"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," Bilaal's filing read.
The legal filing also pointed to more alleged threats from a manager working on Jada’s behalf. According to Bilaal, the manager pushed him to “work something out” and “end this feud before you get physically hurt,” especially after he started planning a “whistleblower memoir.”
Bilaal claimed the messy fallout destroyed his reputation, damaged his health and caused serious emotional and financial stress. He accused Jada of “malicious, intentional and reckless conduct.”
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars.
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He’s also suing Jada for “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” saying she tried to discredit him when she told TMZ she’d never seen Will involved in intimate behavior with men.
The lawsuit argued her denial was meant to undermine Bilaal, pointing to a viral video he released of Will “groping Alfonso Ribeiro (including his p----, nipple and buttocks)” in front of Jada and her kids. Ribeiro has never addressed the claim.
Despite the chaos, Ribeiro said he and Will continue to keep in touch.
“I talk to everyone when I can,” he told People in May, adding that the Fresh Prince cast is still close. “We're all obviously doing many different things, but there's a lot of love and 35 years is pretty special.”
Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro are still on good terms.
On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran from 1990 to 1996, Will played a fictional version of himself — the West Philly teen who gets sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel Air. Ribeiro famously starred as his cousin Carlton Banks.
In December 2024, Will opened up to VICE’s Black Comedy in America about how meaningful his friendship with Ribeiro is.
He said their connection was one of the “creative relationships I've had that have totally transformed my life,” adding, “Where you meet somebody who understands you in a way that other people don't understand you — and they're able to understand you, then craft things for you to create and shine and explode. And Alfonso was that guy for sure.”
