Madonna revealed this week that she dated Tupac Shakur briefly in the mid-1990s, and even credited the late rapper with inspiring one of her most infamous interviews with David Letterman in 1994.
The revelation of the Madonna-Tupac relationship came up Wednesday when the
singer stopped by Howard Stern's radio show and the two discussed her notorious, F-bomb-strewn Letterman appearance.
"At one time I was mad at [Letterman]," Madonna told Stern. "I was in a weird mood that day. I was dating Tupac Shakur and the thing is he had got me all riled up about life in general, so when I went on the show, I was feeling very gangster."
When Stern said the pairing came as a surprise to him, Madonna insisted it was not a secret that she and Shakur dated. Shakur had just branched off into movies at the time, co-starring along with Janet Jackson and Regina King in the 1993 film "Poetic Justice."
Rosie Perez, co-host of "The View," confirmed the Madonna-Tupac relationship Thursday saying that she was the person that connected the two at the
1993 Soul Train Awards, according to People magazine.
Shakur accompanied Perez to the awards show after a date stood her up. It was there that the rapper caught Madonna's eye.
"Madonna comes over. She looks at me, she goes 'Girl,'" Perez said. When she told Shakur Madonna was interested in meeting him, he reportedly told her to "hook that up."
Madonna, who went on to have high-profile relationships with Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, told Stern that it is difficult for her to maintain a relationship for a long period of time.
"They weren't right in the end," she said, adding that she took her share of responsibility for why her relationships did not last. "I didn't want to stay unhappy and miserable. It's very hard if you're an artist, a creative person and . . . a strong, independent female to be in a marriage with a man who isn't threatened by that and is comfortable with all the things I stand for and what I do."