During a recent appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show” Jada Pinkett Smith took a stroll down memory lane and discussed her relationship with slain rapper Tupac Shakur.
“Pac was probably one of the first male figures that I had in my life that saw the beauty and my talent and intelligence separated from sex,” Jada explained.
Jada went on to say that Tupac offered something that most fathers offer their daughters.
“That’s something that a young girl gets from her father, I didn’t have that. Pac was the first one that it wasn’t about sex it was about, ‘You, you’re a beautiful woman, you’re talented, you’re strong, I respect you and you’re my girl. You’re going to sit right here, I’m going to protect you.'”
“And that was about our relationship was like,” she added.
The mother of two also discussed encountering her husband, Will Smith, for the first time.
“One time meeting him at Bullock’s. Bullock’s is like this department store in Los Angeles and I’m with my mother and Will’s like ‘Hey Jada’ and saying hello to my mother and just as cheery as ever and happy as he always is and my mother’s like, ‘Why can’t you date a nice guy like him?’ I said, ‘Will, that’s the Fresh Prince, what I’m going to do with him?’, and of course look at me now.”
Little did she know, she’d later audition to play Will’s girlfriend on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
“When I was 19 I auditioned to play one of his girlfriends on Fresh Prince [of Bel Air] and they told me I was too short.”
While she didn’t get the original role she went out for, Will later circled back and asked Jada to play his girlfriend for another movie project that he was working on.
“Many years later once I started a film career, Mr. Smith decided he wanted to come and ask me to play his girlfriend and I had to tell him no.”
She adds that if she’d taken Will up on his initial offer, they probably wouldn’t be married today.
“I think if I had done it we would not be married today because you have to meet people at a time that you’re ready. Neither one of us were ready at that time.”
Watch a clip from Jada’s interview on the next page.
