What Happened Between Tupac Shakur And TLC's Lisa Lopes?
It's been 21 years since TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in a tragic car crash in Honduras. Aside from her musical fame, Left Eye was also known for having an abusive relationship with the ex-NFL player, Andre Rison.
It got so toxic that she burned his house down at one point, only to get back together after. But before their reconciliation, the late rapper, Tupac Shakur stood by the No Scrubs hitmaker's side and even picked her up from the scene of the crime.
The latter's friends said that the two were soulmates. Here's the truth about this love triangle.
Why Did 'Left Eye' Burn Down Her Boyfriend Andre Rison's House?
In June 1994, Left Eye set Rison's Atlanta home on fire. A lot of people have forgotten about it as it was the same month Nicole Brown Simpson's body was found, marking the start of O.J. Simpson's scandalous trial. A year after the incident, the athlete told People that Lopes had been drinking at that time.
On the night of June 8, he went out clubbing with some friends. When he got home at 5 a.m., the singer was in the driveway yelling at him. "I knew she'd been drinking some," Rison recalled. "But I didn't know what was upsetting her. I started taking blows to the face. Finally, I grabbed her and asked her what was wrong. But she kept coming at me."
He then admitted to slapping Lopes, "not to hurt her, but to calm her." However, it "didn't work. We were inside the house now, and I picked her up and slammed her on the bed and sat on her. I still couldn't control her. So I left. I went on a 20-mile walk."
When Rison was out, his brother, Reggie Brown saw the Red Light Special performer standing over the whirlpool watching the flames go up, shouting, "I don't care anymore!" It wasn't until hours later that the former wide receiver learned about what had happened. He spent the morning at the house of his then-teammate, Jason Phillips— whose wife Jeanette, drove Rison home.
"There were all these fire trucks," he remembered. "I couldn't believe it. I just sat down and cried." That night, he rode his motorcycle to the Falcons training camp in Suwanee. He confessed to thinking of swerving into the expressway median on his way. "It was like I'd gone the full limit," he said.
Two days later, Left Eye turned herself in to the Atlanta police. Then about a week later, her lawyer announced that she had "voluntarily entered a rehabilitation program," reportedly for alcohol abuse.
How Did 2Pac Support Left Eye After Burning Down Andre Rison's House?
In an interview with The Art of Dialogue in January 2023, Rison said that he thought Left Eye had planned the whole thing with Shakur, who picked her up from the former's burning home. "I assumed that was already planned," Rison shared.
"I just looked outside and there was a limo outside. She was getting in the limo and the door cracked. When the door cracked, it was obvious. There were other people outside, too. Everybody seen everything, but it was all good. I was already disengaging."
In a Lifetime docu-series about their tumultuous relationship, Rison said that he'd always thought of Lopes and Shakur's relationship as platonic. However, the latter's best friend, Trena Smith disagreed.
"I think Andre knew how Lisa felt about Pac, and I think Andre knew that was his competition," Smith said in the special. "They had a strong connection, they knew what each other were thinking, they could finish each other's sentences."
Regardless of Pac and Left Eye's relationship, the incident led Rison to "draw the line 'cause I had partners like that before, but this was a unique situation." But after she was sentenced to five years of probation and a $10,000 fine for first-degree arson, the couple got back together.
Andre Rison Denied Being 'Abusive' To Left Eye
In his 1994 interview with People, Rison said that he still had feelings for Left Eye and that he wasn't abusive to her like her lawyer claimed during the arson trial, saying that "Lisa is in fear of her life."
"It hurts me because I'm not like that," Rison clarified to the magazine. "We did everything together—shopped, cooked, laughed, cried, went to nightclubs, parks, functions…"
Rison added that Lopes was irreplaceable. "I have cried a lot," he said at that time. "But I can't say that I've shed one tear for the house. I can replace a house, but I can't replace the life I had, or a certain girl."
They went on to date, on and off, for seven years after the incident. They even planned on getting married in 2001, a year before Left Eye's passing. They called it quits for good that same year.
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