Willow Smith supported by famous friends and fans through devastating loss

Willow Smith took to social media on Friday to share that her beloved dog of over a decade, Abby, had passed away earlier in the week.

The 24-year-old musician had her pooch for 14 years, and marked the loss with a moving tribute and a photograph of them snuggled up together.

“Rest in peace my first born, my buhboonki, my Abby girl,” she penned. “The joy that you shared with EVERYONE who had the honor of witnessing you is immense and eternal. Thank you for letting me love and care for you for 14 beautiful years.”

She quickly received messages of condolences and support from several of her friends like musician siiickbrain, Jordyn Woods, her dad Will Smith's collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff, Nile Rodgers, Sean Ono Lennon and even Mariah Carey's teenage son Moroccan Cannon, as well as her fans.

Willow has several other pets, including a pair of cats and two other dogs, one of whom she rescued in 2022 named Korn after one of her favorite metal bands.

The musician bought a home for herself in Malibu in 2020, a $4 million modern architectural marvel that was reportedly one of the homes affected by the Palisades wildfires in January, although Willow has yet to comment on the loss.

She has occasionally shared glimpses into her life at home with her pets and has confessed to living a much quieter and simpler life than her famous parents Will and Jada Pinkett Smith or her brother Jaden.

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“I live alone, with a few cats and a few dogs. I'm like an old lady, I love hiking with my dogs, being quiet,” she told The Guardian in a previous interview. 

She has spoken about her love for nature and being in the great outdoors with her dogs, and how it also specifically impacted her latest studio album, the Grammy-nominated Empathogen, a jazz-influenced record that departs from her previous rock and punk aesthetic.

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During a conversation with Rolling Stone, she emphasized why being alone and surrounded by nature helped her come to terms with the new record. “When we're alone, when there's nobody there to distract us from our own thoughts, we try to run away from it.”

“But I feel like it's a really interesting practice to understand and to really see what changes when you don't try to push it away.”

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Comparing it to recording her previous album Coping Mechanism, she added: “This is a rebirth situation for me and almost me falling deeper in love with music again. I didn't even know that that could happen. Coping Mechanism was a door opened. This next project is me taking my first step through that door.” 

“The amount of gratitude I have and the amount of excitement that I have for really studying and absorbing parts of music that I didn’t even think were possible — it makes me feel connected to this amazing lineage of so many beautiful musicians that have come before me and that will come after me that are holding this torch of service, and gratitude, and dedication to the craft.”