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Jada Pinkett-Smith broke down in tears when she reflected on her 'soulmate', Tupac Shakur.
Jada, 52, has been making global headlines in the last week after her bombshell revelation that she and husband Will Smith have been secretly separated for the last seven years.
And now, while promoting the release of her memoir Worthy, the actress has opened up about her relationship with the late Tupac.
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The pair grew up together, having first met at Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland back in the 80s.
Despite never developing a physical relationship, the California rapper once proposed to Jada in the form of a letter, whilst serving a sexual assault sentence in Rikers Island.
Reading out an extract of the letter on today's episode of Steven Bartlett's Diary Of A Ceo (16 October), Jada said: "Now as I slip from grace and the world has turned against me a few claim to have love for me but once again you show your love.
"After deep reflection and spiritual awakening I have come to realise the friend, love and soulmate was there all the time.
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"I have not seen or felt from anywhere anyone the intensity and loyalty that you have shown me.
"That is why I want to commit myself to you. I want to marry you."
Although Jada turned down Tupac's proposal, she stayed in his life up until they had a big argument just before his death in 1996.
She said: "Pac and I had a hard time understanding why we didn't have it and I [remember] being on the back of porch of my house and we're having this discussion I'm like 'okay Pac just kiss me'.
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"And he kisses me and it's the most disgusting kiss between us both! I mean he pulled back and I pulled back and I was like 'see dummy!'"
However, when the BBC Dragon showed Jada an old image of herself with Tupac and their friend Maxine - who died by suicide around the time of the rapper's death - she broke down in tears.
Jada went on: "Throughout our relationship we definitely had this beautiful closeness that was really intimate but never physically intimate.
"A lot of emotional intimacy, a lot of intellectual intimacy. We just knew how to reach each other in ways that was very difficult.
"We knew how to get around each other's walls and we didn't get offended when we would fall into our defaults of defence - which could be be pretty fierce!
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"Our arguments were very passionate but because we were one and the same in that way we kind of understood that language."
Explaining why the pair never dated, Jada said: "I think physical intimacy can really get in the way and I think that God just made it that way.
"God was like 'no I got a plan and that's not part of the plan.'"
Topics: Celebrity, Tupac Shakur, Will Smith
Anish Vij