It turns out Ashley Banks’ first kiss on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was also Tatyana Ali’s!
“A favorite memory from set? God, I haven’t thought about set in a long time. Well, favorite show memory would be like singing ‘Respect.’ That was a fun one,” Ali, 39, told Us Weekly exclusively. “Well, I was terrified at the time, but looking back on it, I love looking back on it. And probably just because … I mean, this was another terrifying thing at the time. But I had my first kiss on the show. My real first kiss.”
Ali added that she remembered her costars, including Karyn Parsons and Alfonso Ribeiro, “coming to set that afternoon to see” the milestone moment even though they were not “involved in the scene at all.”
“I just remember Karyn Parsons, who played Hilary Banks. Karyn, Alfonso … And we had our cameras … The cameras on sitcoms are, like, huge cameras. And I just remember them looking behind the camera … I mean, who has a first kiss like that?” the actress recalled. “At the time, I wanted to die.”
As for the lucky man with whom Ali shared her first kiss, the Glory Road star told Us she could still “see his face” but couldn’t remember his full name.
“His last name is Robinson. Oh, my gosh,” Ali said. “Oh my God, oh my god, oh my God. Andrew Robinson? His last name was Robinson. Oh my goodness. Oh my God, I can see his face!”
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which starred Will Smith, aired on NBC for six seasons from 1990 to 1996. According to Ali, the cast of the sitcom have a group text.
“We do keep in touch. Yeah. And some of us more often than others,” she told Us. “But yeah, we do. We really liked each other.”
Ali also enjoyed bonding with the cast of her upcoming Lifetime movie, Jingle Belle.
“We had a really good time. The people in it are Cornelius Smith Jr., Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tempestt Bledsoe, Valarie Pettiford, Obba Babatunde. And we’re all people that have worked together over time,” she said. “I hadn’t worked with Cornelius before. And we just were jamming … We felt like a family. Parts of it were sort of effortless. And I loved … I just loved the music. I loved being able to sing all day. And it was my job.”
Jingle Belle airs on Lifetime Sunday, November 25, at 8 p.m. ET.
