The Medical Condition Jada Pinkett Smith Says Tupac Secretly Lived With

Jada Pinkett Smith grew such a close relationship with rapper Tupac Shakur that she even knew the medical condition he struggled with.

Pinkett Smith and Shakur's relationship goes way back. The two celebrities first met in 1986 when they were just sophomores at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland, according to Today. From the outset, Pinkett Smith recognized she had a special connection with the 'All Eyez On Me' rapper. She told Arsenio Hall in 2014, "Pac was probably one of the first male figures that I had in my life that saw the beauty, and the talent, and my intelligence — separated from sex." Although they went their separate ways to pursue their dreams, they constantly looked out for each other, hoping to work together one day.

Over the years, the two continued to have a strong friendship, but things took a turn in 1994. Pinkett Smith revealed that Shakur's run-ins with the law shifted their friendship. She told Howard Stern in 2015, "I just wasn't in agreement with the direction that he was taking. And I just told him that it was a very destructive direction." After this, the two fell out and didn't speak. Unfortunately, they never got the chance to reconcile before the rapper's death in 1996. However, Pinkett Smith holds her friendship with Shakur near and dear to her heart, and there are plenty of things she knows about him that many don't, including the medical conditions he lived with.

Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupac Shakur were very similar, which made their friendship strong. One fact that wasn't publicly known until 2023 was that the "Hit Em Up" rapper suffered from alopecia, like Pinkett Smith. According to the National Institute of Health, alopecia is "a disease that happens when the immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss." When you picture Shakur or see images of the late rapper, his usual look includes a bandana on his shaved head. While people may have thought being bald was a style choice for Shakur, it might not have been.

Pinkett Smith told People that after being arrested by the Oakland Police Department in 1991, he began experiencing hair loss. She shared, "After he was in Northern California with the police officers that beat him up, he started losing his hair. And his alopecia patterns were far more extreme than mine." It's unclear what parts of his body his medical condition affected the "California Love" rapper, but Pinkett Smith explained it deeply impacted the musician.

As for why Shakur never spoke out about it, the "Matrix" actor believes he was embarrassed. She shared, "I don't think Pac ever talked about his alopecia, but he also looked really good with a bald head. But that was during a time and during an era that you wouldn't — he just wouldn't talk about it."

Jada Pinkett Smith has been very open about her struggles with alopecia since being diagnosed with the medical condition in 2018. She has spoken about it in interviews and has embraced her shaved head on some of the biggest red carpets. In 2018, she told "Red Table Talk" (via US Weekly) how she struggled with coming to terms with her hair loss. She said, "Even in my terror and even in my fear and in the moment of just going, 'Oh, my God, like, why are you so terrified that you might lose your hair?' I really had to put it in a spiritual perspective of, like, the higher power takes so much from people.'" Once Pinkett Smith had a sense of peace with her condition, she shared her experience with the public, and she believes her good friend Tupac Shakur would have done the same.

Pinkett Smith admitted that at the time that Shakur reportedly was experiencing hair loss, he was embarrassed by it, as she told People. But the "Matrix" actor thinks that, over time, he would have spoken out about his story with alopecia. On whether Tupac would advocate for alopecia if he were alive today, she said, "I'm sure ... he would." While we'll never know how Tupac would have handled the situation, the revelation itself is helping bring awareness to the condition.