Jada Pinkett Smith is grateful to have loved and lost.

The actress - who has son Jaden, 15, and daughter Willow, 12, with her 'After Earth' star husband Will Smith - cried her eyes out this week because her heart felt ''broken and empty'' from the loss of loved-ones, including her late grandmother, but believes that grief has helped her appreciate her life more.

The 42-year-old star wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday (02.10.13): ''I woke up missing so many people, so many things from my past. This morning, I missed the nights I would fall asleep to my grandmother playing 'Moonlight Sonata' in the living room below my bedroom, and I thought of all my friends and loved ones I had lost to violence, accidents, jail or drugs. I thought of all the many people who had been in my life for a season (teachers, friends) who I no longer have contact with.''

She added: ''This morning I cried and I cried and I mourned. But these tears were like rain on my soul because after the allowance of my tears came my gratitude for all that is and for all that was.''

Jada recently admitted she had battled ''many addictions, of several kinds'' in her past.

Her former stepfather, Warren A. Brown, later confessed to regularly using cocaine with her mother, Adrienne Banfield Jones, in front of Jada when she was growing up.

Jada is currently in Paris with her daughter Willow, who was photographed by Karl Lagerfeld on the streets on the French Capital on Friday (04.10.13).