Tupac Shakur (left) and Jada Pinkett Smith.Photo:Raymond Boyd/Getty ; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Raymond Boyd/Getty ; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Jada Pinkett Smith, who has been public aboutliving with alopecia, says she had the condition in common withlate friendTupac Shakur.
Smith says in this week’s PEOPLE cover story that the legendary rapper also had alopecia, the autoimmune disease that causes unpredictable hair loss. “I don’t think Tupac ever talked about the alopecia he suffered from,” she says of the revelation.
The actress and talk show host first spoke about her diagnosis with alopecia in 2018 and has since gone on to becomea prominent advocate for awareness surrounding the condition.
“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,” Smith recalls.
She claims that Shakur, who waskilled in 1996, kept the details of his alopecia a secret due to societal pressures at the time. “I don’t think Pac ever talked about his alopecia, but he also looked really good with a bald head,” Smith notes. “But that was during a time and during an era that you wouldn’t — he just wouldn’t talk about it.”
For more on Jada Pinkett Smith, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
The Emmy Award-winner speculates that, “I’m sure if [Shakur] were alive today, he would" speak about his condition publicly.
Smith tells PEOPLE that she ultimately hopes that conversations surrounding her alopecia — and Shakur’s — will further raise awareness about the condition, which affects as many as 6.7 million people in the U.S. alone, according to theNational Alopecia Areata Foundation.
“I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity and we’ll continue to have the opportunity to talk about how alopecia affects me,” she says. “And I’m just hoping that it’ll give people the freedom to talk about how and just not have shame around it and not to have such a stigma. And there’s a lot of shame around alopecia.”
Jada Pinkett Smith on the cover of PEOPLE.Obidigbo Nzeribe
Obidigbo Nzeribe
Smith alsotells PEOPLE in this week’s issuethat she faced “a massive amount of depression” roughly a decade ago in which “voices” were telling her “just kill yourself. You’re not worth anything, you ain’t s—.”
She additionally touches on her relationship with husband Will Smith, whom she says she wasseparated from for six yearsbefore he infamously slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. “We’re still figuring it out,” she adds of the state of their marriage. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
source: people.com
