Jada Pinkett Smith tears up as she recalls relationship with Tupac Shakur

She became friends with rapper Tupac Shakur when they were high school students together in Baltimore.

And on Monday, Jada Pinkett Smith became emotional as she talked about the friendship on an episode of Red Table Talk with Robyn Crawford.

Crawford was promoting her new tell-all about her relationship with Whitey Houston and the two women shared their experience of caring for someone in the spotlight who is heading down a dangerous path.

Crawford confirms her love affair with Houston in her book A Song For You and shared about how possessive the late singer was.


She recalled one time when Houston allegedly suspected her of sleeping with a backup dancer and in a fit of anger, started ripping up a Bible the two used to write messages to one another. 

'She just grabbed it and ripped out the back page and she started tearing it up, ripping it into little pieces,' Crawford explained.

Pinkett Smith responded by saying that it reminded her of Shakur, 'Him feeling like, ‘You’re the only stability I got, I can’t afford for you to put that attention elsewhere.’ For him, it was, we were an anchor for each other. Anytime he felt like that anchor was threatened, oh my God.'

The wife of Hollywood star Will Smith went on to tell Crawford that her book, which she describes as 'a love letter to Whitney', resonated with her in a powerful way.

'It was so healing for me in so many different ways,' Pinkett Smith said. 'It's hard to live with someone who has had a legacy at the level she has had and then to lose them under tragic circumstances. I have a very similar situation.' 

Pinkett Smith has previously revealed that she and Shakur fought before his death over her fear that he was on a wrong and destructive path.

They were still estranged when the rapper was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on the night of September 7, 1996.