Will Smith Opens up about Feeling Jealous of Wife Jada and Tupac Shakur's Friendship

Will Smith was jealous of his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s close friendship with the late rapper Tupac Shakur. The actor got candid about his feelings and the regrets he continues to live with in a recent interview.

Will and his "Bad Boys for Life" co-star have been promoting the upcoming film, and on Monday, they visited "The Breakfast Club" and got talking with the co-hosts Angela Yee, DJ Envy, and Charlamagne Tha God.

It was Charlamagne who brought up the topic of Jada’s close friendship with the late rap legend, Tupac, asking Will (from the 31:48 mark) if their bond ever bothered him. "Oh, [expletive] yeah!" the actor admitted without hesitation.

"Even the word 'wife:' it’s a golden cage, swallow the key. Even before I was married, I was like, 'That’ll kill me.' And it [expletive] near did!"

"That was in the early days. And it was like—that was a big regret for me too ‘cause I could never open up to interact with 'Pac," he added. "You know, we had a little bit of a thing because they grew up together."

Will continued:

"They loved each other, but they never had a sexual relationship… But she just loved him. He was the image of perfection but she was with the Fresh Prince... We were in the room together a couple times, I couldn’t speak to him. And he wasn’t going to speak to me if I wasn’t going to speak to him."

Will revealed that Jada did try to get him and Tupac to get along, but it just wasn’t possible. The "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" alum married Jada in 1997, a year after Tupac died from injuries sustained in a shooting.

According to Fox News, Jada and Tupac met as teenagers when they both attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, but their relationship was never physical. The actress reportedly once forced Tupac to kiss her, but they agreed it was "the most disgusting kiss" they ever had.

Jada has always been open about her relationship with the New York-born rapper. During a November 2019 episode of her Facebook Watch show, "Red Table Talk," she even got candid about his over-protectiveness.

"[Tupac] feeling like, 'You’re the only stability I got, I can’t afford for you to put that attention elsewhere,'" Jada recalled. "For him, it was, we were an anchor for each other. Anytime he felt like that anchor was threatened, oh my God!"

Jada and Will tied the knot a year after Tupac was fatally shot. The couple has a son, Jaden, and daughter, Willow, while they also raise Will's son from a previous marriage, Trey.

Today, Will, 51, and Jada, 48, are considered couple goals, but they’re quick to let anyone know that their marriage is not perfect. Last year, the "Set It Off" star even confessed that she and her husband could not have a conventional marriage.

"I knew that I was not built for conventional marriage," she said. "Even the word 'wife:' it’s a golden cage, swallow the key. Even before I was married, I was like, 'That’ll kill me.' And it [expletive] near did!"

"Why wouldn’t you share what you’ve been through, when you see that other people are out there, trying to figure this [expletive] out?" Jada wondered. "We decided to make it public because it’s part of the healing."