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As if Will Smith and Jada Pinkett haven’t received enough public backlash about their personal lives in recent weeks, they’ve got more to say.
This time Will revealed in his memoir, Will, some interesting facts from being on set while shooting his ’90s hit Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. Of course, Smith was pretty famous in Hollywood at the time, but the woman he wanted to date was on set with him every day and just so happened to be his cousin Hillary Banks, played by Karyn Parsons. However, Smith eventually realized that it was good Parsons swiftly shut him down.
“Not only did Karyn beat out a slew of Hollywood big hitters to win her role, but she was smart enough to tell me ‘hell no’ when I tried to explain we were not really cousins, so it would be fine if we dated,” he wrote. “[I said], ‘I swear it won’t mess up our working relationship.’ She knew better than that – good call, K.P.”
There’s no word on during what season of the show Smith romantically approached Parsons, but he didn’t start dating his now-wife Jada until the show was nearly wrapped.
His nonexistent relationship with Parsons wasn’t the only one he opened up about in his new book; he also spoke on the infamous canoodling between Jada and late rapper Tupac, with whom she grew up with. Surprising no one, he wasn’t feeling the closeness the two had, and it affected his self-esteem.
“In the beginning of our relationship, my mind was tortured by their connection. He was ‘PAC! I was me,” he writes. “He triggered the perception of myself as a coward. I hated that I wasn’t what he was in the world, and I suffered a raging jealousy. I wanted Jada to look at me like that.”
Let’s not forget how Twitter reacted the last time Will brought up ‘Pac:
Will Smith Explains Why “Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air” Co-Star Karyn Parsons Refused To Date Him was originally published on cassiuslife.com
