Decades after Tupac Shakur’s death, people still have questions about his relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith. “When I first met Pac, when we first met, I was a drug dealer,” Jada recalled on Sway’s Universe, explaining that they first formed a connection at the Baltimore School for the Arts. “That’s how we started.”
The actor went on to clarify that “something very bad” made her leave that life behind, but while she was getting out, Shakur was getting further involved. “Pac and I’s relationship was about survival,” Jada explained. And as Jet reported in 1995, she once paid $100,000 to help bail out Shakur, who was being held on sexual abuse charges.
Their friendship still raises eyebrows today, especially since Will Smith admitted to being jealous of the late rapper. “In the beginning of our relationship, my mind was tortured by their connection,” Will wrote in his autobiography (via Complex), explaining that “though they were never intimate, their love for each other is legendary.” He also confessed that he felt too intimidated by the other man to speak to him. “The way Jada loved ‘Pac rendered me incapable of being friends with him,” Will added. “I was too immature.”
