Will Smith Says He Was 'Jealous' Over Jada Pinkett Smith's Relationship with Tupac
Will Smith is making more revelations, this time about Jada Pinkett Smith’s relationship with Tupac Shakur.
In his new memoir, Will, the actor admits that he felt insecure and jealous about his then-girlfriend’s friendship with the late rapper, who attended the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland with Jada when they were teenagers.
“Though they were never intimate, their love for each other is legendary – they defined ‘ride or die,'” Smith writes, according to Complex. “In the beginning of our relationship, my mind was tortured by their connection. He was PAC! and I was me. He triggered the perception of myself as a coward. I hated that I wasn’t what he was in the world, and I suffered a raging jealousy: I wanted Jada to look at me like that.”
Smith admits that he felt a “twisted kind of victory” when Jada ended up picking him over ‘Pac.
“If she chose me over Tupac, there was no way I could be a coward,” says the King Richard star. “I have rarely felt more validated… I was in a room with Tupac on multiple occasions, but I never spoke to him. The way Jada loved Pac rendered me incapable of being friends with him. I was too immature.”
During an interview with “The Breakfast Club” in early 2020, Smith echoed his insecurities about the close bond between ‘Pac and Jada.
“That was a big regret for me too because I could never open up to interact with Pac,” he said. “You know, because we had a little bit of a thing. You know, they grew up together and they loved each other, but they never had a sexual relationship.”
Looking back, he regrets that they couldn’t become friends. “I couldn’t handle it. I was the soft rapper from Philly and he was ‘Pac,” he said. “I was deeply, deeply insecure, and I wasn’t man enough to handle that relationship.”
In the book, which was released this week, Smith also reveals that he thought about taking his father’s life after witnessing him abuse his mother when he was a child.