At the time of his death, in 1996 Tupac Shakur was engaged to Kidada Jones. The American rapper's passing long haunted the stylist. In her 2017 book, School of Awake, Kidada opened up about the grief that followed after the murder.
"With Pac, I felt known. I felt chosen. When he died, he took a piece of my heart with him. I still talk to him sometimes — not because I can’t let go, but because love like that doesn’t vanish," she penned. "I couldn’t forgive him for leaving, so I had to learn to understand him. That’s grief in its rawest truth, when love doesn’t end, it just changes form. You stop trying to let go and start learning how to live with the conversation that never really ends."
Now that a jury has found former gang leader Duane Keith Davis guilty of Tupac's murder nearly three decades later, HELLO! offers an inside look at Kidada's life and where she is now.
© Getty ImagesWho is Kidada Jones?
Kidada is the daughter of the late record producer Quincy Jones and his third wife, Peggy Lipton. She was born in March 1974 and grew up in Bel Air, California, with her parents and sister Rashida.
© WireImageQuincy's daughter attended the Los Angeles Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising before going on to work for Tommy Hilfiger. Kidada built up a career as a successful stylist, working with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Michael Jackson, alongside pursuing a modelling career.
Kidada works as a designer for The Walt Disney Company, and has a line there named Kidada for Disney Couture.
© WireImagePrior to her engagement, she dated LL Cool J from 1992 to 1994. Kidada met Tupac in a New York night club and the couple were living together for four months before his death. She was present in the Las Vegas hotel room when Tupac was shot on September 7, 1996. She stayed in hospital with the rapper for six days before he passed away. Following Tupac's death, she dated Leonardo DiCaprio in 1999. Kidad tied the knot to Jeffrey Nash in 2003, however the former couple divorced in 2006.
© Raymond BoydKidada's mom passed away from colon cancer in May 2019, and her father died in November 2024. "He is truly one of a kind and we will miss him dearly," the family wrote in a statement following Quincy's death. "We take comfort and immense pride in knowing that the love and joy, that were the essence of his being, was shared with the world through all that he created."
