Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith were seemingly destined to be “intertwined.”
In a preview of her upcoming memoir, Worthy, Pinkett Smith, 52, shared a preview of chapter five (“Advanced Degree”) and a corresponding video of her and a young Tupac Shakur lip-synching to “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” the 1987 song that introduced the world to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince — a.k.a. Jada’s future husband. The video she posted on Wednesday, September 20, showed Shakur and Pinkett Smith as kids, living out their rap dreams by lip-synching to the track while dancing in front of a sparkly background.
“Not in a million years would I have dreamed that the Fresh Prince and I would become, um, very acquainted,” Pinkett Smith commented about her husband, 54. “Not in a million years did I imagine three lives, their fates, would be so intertwined. And … I never would have imagined that this video would become a tangible memory of the last time Pac and I were simply kids together.”
“Pac and I lip-syncing ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince during our Junior year in high school. Who would have thought?” added Pinkett Smith. Years later, Jada would meet her future husband when she auditioned for a role on Smith’s show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She and the rapper-turned-actor wed in 1997, two years after Smith divorced his first wife, Sheree Zampino.
After sharing a preview of the video, Pinkett Smith posted a longer clip. “Here is part of the original video of Pac and I doing a terrible job at lip-syncing ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand,'” she said with a laughing-face emoji.
According to the book’s description, Worthy — which arrives Tuesday, October 17 — details Pinkett Smith’s life “as a rebellious youth running the Baltimore streets as an observer and participant in the drug trade, to the deep bond she shared with Tupac Shakur from the moment they met to her move to Los Angeles and the successful career she built on her own terms, to becoming the wife of superstar Will Smith and mother to Jaden, Willow and bonus mom to [Smith and Zampino’s son] Trey.”
“A roller-coaster from the depths of suicidal depression to the heights of self-acceptance and spiritual healing, Worthy is a woman’s journey to finding herself again,” the description adds.
Pinkett Smith kicked off her 52nd year on Monday, September 18. In honor of her birthday, she shared a photo of her newly rose gold hair, a marvelous “birthday sherbet surprise” considering her well-documented struggles with alopecia, a disease that causes hair loss. The new look received rave reviews from her friends, who filled the comments section with birthday well-wishes and love.
In August, Pinkett Smith showed how her hair was “try’na make a comeback.” She showed off the growth on her head. “Still have some trouble spots,” she said, cautiously optimistic, “but — we’ll see.”
