Jada Pinkett Smith isn’t just telling her and Will’s personal business — she’s telling all of Tupac’s business too.
via Page Six:
The “Girls Trip” actress — who publicly announced that she was diagnosed with alopecia in 2018 — revealed that the “All Eyez On Me” rapper also suffered from the autoimmune disease that causes hair loss.
“I don’t think Tupac ever talked about the alopecia he suffered from,” she told People for her cover story Saturday.
Pinkett Smith claimed Shakur’s hair loss problems began after police arrested him for jaywalking in Oakland, Calif., in 1991.
The iconic rapper later filed a $10 million lawsuit against the officers, alleging police brutality. The case was ultimately settled for $42,000.
“After he was in Northern California with the police officers that beat him up, he started losing his hair,” Pinkett Smith recalled. “And his alopecia patterns were far more extreme than mine.”
The “Red Table Talk” host, 52, shared that she believes the Grammy-nominated emcee kept his diagnosis under wraps due to the “era” they were in.
“I don’t think Pac ever talked about his alopecia, but he also looked really good with a bald head,” she said. “But that was during a time and during an era that you wouldn’t — he just wouldn’t talk about it.”
However, the “Set It Off” star said she is “sure” if Shakur — who was fatally shot in 1996 — were alive today, he would speak publicly about his condition.
Pinkett Smith has been candid about her own journey with alopecia, which she said was “terrifying” when it first started.
“I was in the shower one day and then just handfuls of hair just in my hands … It was one of those times in my life that I was literally shaking with fear,” the mom of two admitted on her Facebook Watch talk show in 2018.
Later that year, Pinkett Smith shared that she was experimenting with “little steroid injections” to slow down her hair loss.
In 2021, the “Madagascar” voice actor debuted a fresh buzzcut, which was inspired by her 22-year-old daughter, Willow, whom she shares with estranged husband Will Smith.
Pinkett Smith’s hair became a topic of discussion at the 2022 Oscars when host Chris Rock made a joke about the actress’ shaved head, which prompted the “I Am Legend” actor, 55, to slap the comedian, 58, in the face.
Despite the Pinkett Smith’s complicated 25-year marriage to Smith, she has been open about how special her relationship with Shakur was before he died.
The pals met in the mid-’80s while both attended the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland.
Earlier this week, Pinkett Smith called the late rapper her “soulmate” but said they had “no chemistry.”
“If there is such a thing as past lives, I definitely think Pac and I have traveled a few together. You know, in various forms,” she said during an interview with Rolling Out.
“There was no chemistry between us,” she added. “I talk about it in the book, you know. … It’s that friendship-love chemistry, trust me.”
If Pac wanted us to know that, he would’ve told us that himself.
