Jaleel White broke his silence over his falling out with Will Smith in his new memoir Growing Up Urkel. 

The Family Matters star, now 47, spoke about his now-nonexistent relationship with his former co-star in a new interview with Us Weekly, which was published on Tuesday. 

‘What’s weird is when you cross paths in our business, you never quite know how much or how little a moment meant to each other. And that can kind of play with your brain,’ White said. 

‘It didn’t go nearly the way I thought it was going to go with the things that I said about my interactions with Will,’ he said about Smith, 56.

He also shared a message he had for Smith — who admitted he ‘made tons of mistakes’ while talking about his relationship with fame last year —  in regards to what he wrote about their bond and subsequent falling out. 

‘I just always want Will to know — and I’m not sure he ever did — how much I admired his forging ahead,’ he admitted. 

Jaleel White broke his silence over his falling out with Will Smith in his new memoir Growing Up Urkel. The Family Matters star, now 47, spoke about his now-nonexistent relationship with his former co-star in a new interview with Us Weekly, which was published on Tuesday

 ‘I saw it coming before the rest of America got a chance to see it coming,’ he continued.

‘I could see it coming in NBA All-Star Stay in School Jam and would think, “This dude’s freaking energy is huge in the room.” And you wouldn’t necessarily get credit for that when you’re a kid.’ 

Read More Jaleel White was ordered to wear loose jeans on Family Matters to hide his noticeable ‘bulge’

In his memoir, White also recalled pitching a show to Smith after he signed an overall production deal with Universal in the late ’90s. 

It came after White made a cameo on a crossover episode on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 

The partnership seemed promising until he was told by everyone around him, including his agent, that nothing would materialize. 

‘I should have called Will directly, and the truth was, I wanted to work with Will, badly,’ White wrote in his book. 

‘Soon after my meeting with Will, his head of TV would end up getting relieved of his duties, which complicated the chain of command,’ he recalled. 

‘And Will was becoming such a big star, so fast, that I didn’t have the nerve to call his phone myself months later and ask, “Hey, man, why’d you fire your head of TV? My agent said there was no deal to be made. 

He also shared a message he had for Smith in regards to what he wrote about their bond and subsequent falling out. ‘I just always want Will to know — and I’m not sure he ever did — how much I admired his forging ahead,’ he admitted; pictured February in Las Vegas

‘I saw it coming before the rest of America got a chance to see it coming,’ he continued. ‘I could see it coming in NBA All-Star Stay in School Jam and would think, “This dude’s freaking energy is huge in the room.” And you wouldn’t necessarily get credit for that when you’re a kid’; pictured April 1991 at the 5th Annual American Comedy Awards

In his memoir, White also recalled pitching a show to Smith after he signed an overall production deal with Universal in the late ’90s. It came after White made a cameo on a crossover episode on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air; pictured in November 1995 still

‘They’re offering me this show at [United Paramount Network] and I know in my heart this premise is weaker than ours.’ 

White ultimately signed on to star in the short-lived series Grown Ups after being convinced it was the safer option for him. 

‘My decision to go with Grown Ups instead of exploring a show with Will Smith — sticking to my guns and being patient with the process basically ended my and Will’s relationship,’ he explained.

‘I should have called Will directly, and the truth was, I wanted to work with Will, badly,’ White wrote in his book. ‘And Will was becoming such a big star, so fast, that I didn’t have the nerve to call his phone myself’; pictured in November 1995 still

He rose to stardom playing Steve Urkel on the hit ’90s sitcom Family Matters; pictured in 1990 Family Matters portrait

‘There were no more invites to his house or his movie sets, no more calls to say, “What’s up?”‘ 

White reflected on how he ended up learning there were many outsiders involved in the incident. 

‘When I got the opportunity to nearly work with him, [I now] go back and look at the number of people that conspired to make sure that we did not speak directly any further,’ he said. 

‘It sucks for me. But as long as I got it out and I got to express it, that’s once again in one of those areas where the book just becomes therapeutic.’