Will Smith is really into being open and honest these days, sharing what up until relatively recently were kept as private family matters. The latest revelation is in his new memoir, Will, where the OG Fresh Prince addresses his feelings of jealousy during the early stages of his relationship with now wife Jada Pinkett Smith — particularly when it came to her friendship with Tupac Shakur.
If you didn’t already know, Tupac — who was killed in a shooting in 1996 — and Jada shared an exceptionally close friendship after meeting at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland as teens.
As Will details, “though they were never intimate, their love for each other is legendary – they defined 'ride or die.'” He continued, “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.”
Will went on to note that aside from Jada and 'Pac’s close bond, he felt jealous of Tupac's “fearless passion” and “militant morality,” which he compared to the powerlessness he felt unable to stand up to his father — with whom Will detailed as having a turbulent relationship with, due to his father's pattern of “violent” behavior and alcohol abuse.
With that in mind, Smith revealed that he felt a “twisted kind of victory” when Jada ended up picking him. “If she chose me over Tupac, there was no way I could be a coward,” he said. “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.”
Like we said, within the last year or so Will, and Jada tbh, have become a bit more open about sharing certain details of their private lives. As this latest admission isn’t the first time Will has opened up about Jada and Tupac’s bond.
During an interview with The Breakfast Club in early 2020, Smith talked about his insecurities after he was directly asked if he ever felt “jealous” of the “love” Jada had for the late rapper.
“Oh, f*** yeah. Oh my god, that dude. And you know that was in the early days, too. That was a big regret for me because I could never open up to interact with Pac.”
Smith continued, “We had a little bit of a thing because they grew up together and they loved each other but they never had a sexual relationship. But then come into that age where now that was a possibility, and Jada was with me, so Pac had a little thing on that. But she just loved him, he was the image of perfection but she was with the Fresh Prince.”
Will’s self titled memoir is available now, and you can get all the info you need about it here.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram