Jada Pinkett Smith Breaks Down On Camera Remembering Her Complex Relationship With Tupac

Jada Pinkett Smith has put together another emotional, nostalgic episode of Red Table Talk.

The popular Facebook Watch show’s brand new Monday episode centered on Robyn Crawford and her longtime relationship and friendship with the late legend Whitney Houston. And in an interesting turn, as Crawford dove deeper into her past with the Bodyguard singer, Smith found some surprising parallels there with her own past history with late rapper Tupac Shakur.

Crawford — who was there to discuss her new memoir A Song For You, which details her entire history with the legendary R&B singer — nearly brought Jada to tears at multiple points throughout the nearly 30-minute long interview.

As the author opened up about her complex relationship with Houston — especially as Whitney’s career caught on and fame took hold — the Red Table Talk host was beside herself over the parallels.

At one point, Jada revealed a bit about her own longtime, complex friendship with the iconic rapper, telling her guest (below):

“When you said [the book is] a love letter to Whitney, that resonated as so powerful. It was so healing for me in so many different ways. It’s hard to live 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.”

And soon thereafter, Smith peeled back more layers of her relationship with the rapper — who she was fighting with at the time of his death, concerned he was going down a destructive path.

Tupac Shakur Jada Pinkett Smith Whitney Houston death interview Robyn Crawford — Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith, pictured here in the early 1990s, were very close friends in the years leading up to the rapper’s untimely death. / (c) WENN

Once extremely close, Robyn had left Whitney’s team well before the singer’s untimely death in 2012; similarly, Jada and Tupac were no longer on speaking terms when he was killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1996.

Jada was overcome with emotion when talking about the similarities between the two stories, saying:

“That I understood, because of the complex relationship I’ve had with Pac in those moments of his, ‘Who’s that?!,’ knowing damn well there ain’t nothing like that between us. 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. It’s a lot of things I didn’t understand while I was in it with Pac.”

Wow.

The whole ep is well worth watching — not only to hear Pinkett Smith reveal insight into her longtime friendship with Tupac, but also for all of Crawford’s extensive insight into Whitney Houston’s life and legacy.

You can watch the full episode (below):

Loving and Losing Whitney Houston: Robyn Crawford Speaks Out

Whitney Houston's close friend and confidante Robyn Crawford breaks her silence, revealing the closely guarded truth about their friendship, their romance, and her volatile marriage.

Posted by Red Table Talk on Sunday, November 17, 2019

Very powerful, emotional stuff.

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[Image via Red Table Talk/Facebook/WENN]