Jada Pinkett Smith recalls being handed Tupac Shakur’s ashes by Suge Knight at starry memorial
One of the hardest moments for Jada Pinkett Smith to write about in her new memoir, “Worthy,” was losing her “soulmate” Tupac Shakur.
The rapper died in 1996 after being ambushed in a drive-by-shooting in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight in the driver’s seat.
Smith writes in “Worthy” about a private memorial in actress Jasmine Guy’s backyard when Knight “delivered Pac’s ashes into my very hands.”
Smith says she was “rageful” after receiving the ashes from Knight in a new interview with “Extra.”
“Having to receive Pac’s ashes in that way was a really devastating moment and I’ll put it like that, to just get him in that little cardboard box, and yes, I was very rageful about the whole thing, about everything,” she said in a two-part interview that aired this week.
The “Girl’s Trip” star also further explained the nature of her relationship with the rapper saying, “On the internet, there’s been a whole lot of things about me calling Tupac my soulmate, and I think people regard soulmate just in a romantic way,” she said.
“Soulmates aren’t just romantic,” she added, saying the relationship was platonic.
Despite writing that the “All Eyez on Me” rapper had proposed to her from Rikers, she further told “Extra,” “Pac and I were not romantic, but he is a soulmate. I know I will see him again.”
Shakur was sentenced to eight months on Rikers Island in 1995 before he was bailed out by Knight.
Smith, 52, has said of visiting Skakur in jail at the time, “Seeing him there, the condition that he was in, and having to leave him there, he was in bad shape.”
She added in an interview with the “All the Smoke” podcast this week, “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,” she said.
Prosecutors announced a suspect, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, was arrested last month in connection to Shakur’s murder. He was expected to plead not guilty in the case, according to reports.
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