Page 53 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

Six Degrees of the Fresh Prince
53
On the set of A Different World that day, Smith met a
fashion design student named Sheree Zampino. He was
immediately attracted to her, though apparently the feeling
was not mutual. Smith asked Zampino out several times
before she said yes. After their first date, the two were
inseparable. Zampino enjoyed being with Smith and was
taken by his sense of humor and charm.
The couple became engaged on Christmas Eve, 1991, and
they were married on May 9, 1992, at a seaside hotel in Santa
Barbara, California. With his tax debts to the government
finally paid, Smith indulged his friends and family with a
lavish wedding reception. Of course, Jeff Townes was in
attendance, as were major celebrities, including the actor
Denzel Washington and the basketball star Magic Johnson.
Ebony, one of the best-known magazines geared toward
African Americans, selected Will and Sheree as one of the
year’s ten hottest couples.
By the end of the year, the couple had become a trio.
Sheree gave birth to a son, Willard Christopher Smith III, in
December 1992. With son, father, and grandfather all having
the same name, the Smiths decided to give the baby a
nickname to avoid confusion. They call him Trey, a form of
the word three, since he is the third Will Smith.
This was a promising time for Smith. Aside from
embarking on a new marriage and becoming a father, he
made plans to appear in two more movies. The first one was
a science fiction movie to be titled Biofeed. The other was a
baseball movie, Scout. Smith was excited about both films.