Jada Pinkett Smith says Tupac proposed to her while he was in Rikers, but she knew he would divorce her as soon as he got out of jail
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
- Jada Pinkett Smith says Tupac Shakur proposed to her while he was in jail.
- In an "All the Smoke" podcast episode, she recounted what it was like seeing Shakur on Rikers Island.
- "Seeing him there, the condition that he was in, and having to leave him there, he was in bad shape," she said.
Jada Pinkett Smith says the late rapper Tupac Shakur proposed to her while he was in jail in the 90s.
In an episode of the "All The Smoke" podcast, which is hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Pinkett Smith talked about her forthcoming memoir, "Worthy," and her relationship with Shakur. The episode is set to air on October 19. A teaser clip of the episode was released on Friday.
Pinkett Smith said she became close friends with Shakur when they attended the Baltimore School for the Arts together in the 80s.
In 1995, Shakur was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing a fan, per The New York Times. He served eight months of his sentence before he was bailed out by Suge Knight, the cofounder of Death Row Records.
On the podcast, Pinkett Smith, 52, said she visited Shakur while he was serving time on Rikers Island. She said that recounting the experience of seeing him there was "one of the most painful parts" of the memoir-writing process.
"Seeing him there, the condition that he was in, and having to leave him there, he was in bad shape," Pinkett Smith said.
She also elaborated on the rapper's proposal to her.
"So when he asked me to get married, I knew at that time that he needed somebody to do time with him — which I was going to do anyway. You ain't have to marry me to do time, I'm here," Pinkett Smith said on the podcast.
Shakur was looking for was a support system to help him get through his sentence, the actor said: "I think that for him, he just felt like, 'Okay, if I can tether myself, it'll keep me on a trajectory.'"
At the end of the day, the marriage proposal wouldn't have amounted to anything, she added.
"Because of our friendship and because of everything we have been through together, he just wanted to feel that solidified foundation, you know?" Pinkett Smith said on the podcast. "Because I promise you, he would have married and divorced me as soon as his ass left jail."
Pinkett Smith previously said that while she thinks she and Shakur were soulmates, a relationship between them wouldn't have worked out because they had no chemistry.
Shakur was killed in 1996 after being involved in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The actor went on to marry Will Smith in 1997, a year after Shakur died. Last week, Pinkett Smith announced that she and Smith have been separated since 2016.