Will Smith admits 'jealousy' over Jada Pinkett Smith's close friendship with Tupac: 'I couldn't handle it'

Hollywood megastar Will Smith has divulged that he struggled to come to terms with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s close friendship with rapper Tupac Shakur during the early days of their relationship.

Pinkett Smith grew up in Baltimore with Shakur, who was shot dead in 1996, and the pair were best friends.

Speaking on The Breakfast Club, when asked by the show's Charlamagne Tha God if he ever felt jealous of Shakur, Smith said: "F**k yeah, and that was in the early days.

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"That was a big regret for me too because I could never open up to interact with ‘Pac. We had a little bit of a thing because they grew up together and they loved each other but they never had a sexual relationship."

The actor went on to say he "couldn't speak" to the rapper and that Tupac in turn didn't speak to him.

While Pinkett Smith encouraged the two men to mix, Smith says it never happened because he was "deeply insecure".

"That was a huge regret of mine and I couldn’t handle it. I was the soft rapper from Philly and he was ‘Pac," he added.

Smith and Pinkett Smith wed in 1997 before going on to have two children, Jaden, 21, and Willow, 19.

The Men in Black star has an older son, Trey Smith, from his first marriage to Sheree Zampino.

He and his wife still maintain a good relationship with Zampino, who has appeared on Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk.

The Girls' Trip actor even went so far as to describe their relationship as a "non-sexual throuple".