Prince: The Broken Man Beyond The Lights

The price one would pay for fame, glitz and glamour has always been high. A bill too hefty for anyone to foot. Expectations too much to try to live up to. At some point, anyone would want out! However, the trappings of fame come with heavy chains that bounds one to it forever, even in death! Prince Rogers Nelson must have known of this all too well.

Rough Childhood

Strutting down the hallway in ­platform shoes with a giant afro and a choker round his neck, the teenage Prince looked unlike anyone else at his suburban high school.

Though he was already a gifted musician, the outlandish outfits were the only way the short, skinny kid from a broken home could get noticed.

“He was trying to be cute and get attention. He didn’t get it at home,” recalls schoolmate Paul Mitchell. “A lot of people felt sorry for him.”

Though he would go on to sell over 100 million records, scoop seven Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar, Prince’s life was moulded by his troubled childhood.

His parents split when he was two, resulting in him being a young man who was a mass of contradictions. Shy yet desperate for attention, he craved sex, then found religion. He became famous, then a virtual recluse. And through it all, the musical genius kept on playing.

According to his song "Sister" he was legit raped by his 32 year old half-sister. He went on record and admitted it. No one batted an eye!

"Sister" Lyrics

Destined For A Non-Private Life

Fame is a beast. For a man who was obviously shy and held many fascinating secrets, it unfortunately seems he (like many, regardless of struggle already being present in life) was somehow destined for fame. In other words, fame means being a public figure and a role model when you might not desire to be. Which means having to set a good example and be inspiration and encouragement to strangers. Which means you become subject to harsh judgment and scrutiny on a mass level. It also means you can never go back to living a "normal life".

At the age of 11-years-old in April 1970 Prince made a local news station, Minneapolis WCCO.
It wasn't until early 2022, that Matt Liddy found the clip while reporting on a much more recent teacher’s strike in Minneapolis. Which means the media has had the footage for years. Did Prince remember? Did he ever think the footage would resurface?

Throughout his career, a number of personal files and important documents have been made available for public viewing amongst regular people including certificates of birth and marriage, passports, report cards and you name it! Even after he was pronounced dead to the public, there has been countless authorized and unauthorized investigations, snooping and prying into the inner workings of Prince's life and legal matters.

Prince's 1986 Passport

Court cases and documents have been accessed as well as some questionable transactions by those closest to him at the time of his death (including hacked computers and deleted email accounts). Not to mention the conspiracy theories surrounding his death and the fact that many believe he's not even dead. Obviously no one wants to believe that their Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley has really perished. The lack of respect that has been shown for this man's privacy is unbelievable. Not to mention his lengthy Wikipedia page.

Complicated Sexuality

In today's world, to be honest, everything surrounding anything related to sex or sexuality including gender is a hot mess. Back in the day certain topics were taboo. Prince was no acception. He addressed sexual accusations about his sexuality early on in his career. In the title track to his 1981 album Controversy he sung:

Not to mention his adolescent queer behavior during his appearance on American Bandstand on January 26, 1980.

Prince sported a perm hairstyle for the cover of his self-titled 1979 album and wore a bikini bottom for the cover of 1980's Dirty Mind. As the music for these projects ranged from a variety of oral sex, threesomes, incest, ejaculation, being only physically attracted to someone plus wanting to be his lover's mother and sister too! Over the years, as his artistic direction led him through various different hairstyles, fashion pieces and musical genres by the latter half of his career, Prince seemed to be a changed man. Transformed by it all, he became increasingly more spiritual and appealingly more masculine in his presentation to the public. He became a master of both the feminine and the masculine energy. Why not? Wasn't he created by both a woman and man used as vessels to bring forth this creature from the ultimate divine energy from the great beyond?

The allegedly fake photo of Prince as his female alter-ego ‘Camille’ that appeared in some bootleg versions of "The Black Album" cassettes.

Yes, he had thousands of custom made mule pump high heels with matching costumes (like only a true DIVA would 💋) bell bottoms, neck chokers, ear rings, makeup including eye liner, eye shadow, blush and lip stick. Yes, he was unapologetic. He didn’t apologize for any of it. Let the chips fall where they may. In honor of his royal badness and his ultimate love for makeup, the Prince Estate in collaboration with Urban Decay released a special kit called The Prince Collection on May 27, 2021.

As far as the public knows, the recording artist has had two failed marriages, suffered through a few miscarriages and countless conundrums with several different parties. Maybe even some men.

Jerome Benton and Prince in Under the Cherry Moon.

In 1990, he saw 16-year-old dancer Mayte García standing outside his tour bus, and referred to her as his "future wife". She soon began working as one of his backup singers and dancers after graduating high school. They were married on February 14, 1996, when he was 37 and she was 22. They had a son named Amiir (born October 16, 1996), who died a week after being born due to Pfeiffer syndrome. The distress of losing a child and García's second miscarriage took a toll on the marriage, and the couple divorced in 2000. Mayte later sold her wedding dress in an auction on an episode  of VH1's Hollywood Exes.

Prince's Marriage Certificate To Mayte Garia

He went on to marry Manuela Testolini in 2001, when he was 43 and she was 25. The couple had no children together. They separated in 2005 and divorced in May 2006.

Besides his perverted entanglements with women much younger than him, he faces claims of having a certain coldness towards women. Which we covered in our three-part video Things Prince Said About 4 Of His Love Interests (SEE HERE - Part 1: https://youtu.be/H9e7blg6cF0; Part 2: https://youtu.be/WBvk9LyjDH8; Part 3: https://youtu.be/vKvoA4PtBMw?si=Z-ibT-txT6FPNfCg).

Insecurities

The 5 foot 2 (or 3) Minneapolis, Minnesota native was raised by his father after his parents split. 
“From that point, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased in school. And early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy and as noisy as I could.” He said of the time. He remained close to his father. But they lived in virtual poverty, which saw Prince develop anger issues.

“We used to go to McDonald’s,” he once said. “I didn’t have any money, so I’d just stand outside and smell stuff. Poverty makes people angry, brings out their worst side. I was very bitter when I was young. I was insecure and I’d attack anybody.” If Prince achieved fame and success for money, his ideas about money and poverty may have changed along with each experience.
In 2004, during his induction speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame he stated:

In the intro to his song "No More Candy 4 U" from his 2009 album MPLSound he reiterated:

Indicated that he sold his soul for fame and fortune to prove himself to those who otherwise may not have known or liked him in an attempt to escape poverty by using a very common conscious strategy used to reduce unpleasant emotions and experiences. A mechanism!
However it was in his song "Breakdown" that he simply explained:

Alleged Drug Addiction

On April 20, 2016, Prince's representatives called Howard Kornfeld, a California specialist in addiction medicine and pain management, seeking medical help for the star. Kornfeld scheduled to meet with him on April 22, and he contacted a local physician who cleared his schedule for a physical exam on April 21.

On April 21, at 9:43 am, the Carver County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call requesting an ambulance be sent to Prince's home at Paisley Park. The caller initially told the dispatcher that an unidentified person at the home was unconscious, then moments later said he was dead, and finally identified the person as Prince. The caller was Kornfeld's son, who had flown in with buprenorphine that morning to devise a treatment plan for opioid addiction. There has been rumors in circulation for years that Prince was secretly addicted to "angel dust". Whoever the supplier of these random drugs if there was any addiction he hid it and hid it well. He must have masked it with anti-drug activism and veganism. The media has spun the narrative that he damaged his hips while performing in the '80s, saying he jumped off risers while wearing high heels during his "Purple Rain" days and that "it damaged parts of his body." Prince was seen in frequentl years using a cane. This reportdly triggered his love of painkillers due to his hip and ankle issues.

Conclusion

No one is perfect. No one has ever been. No one will ever be. Prince didn't try to be perfect. Well, at least not too hard. Look, he was a broken man. No one goes unscathed by life's turmoil. Inside himself he was shattered no doubt. Beyond his cool, calm and collected swave outer persona - he had flaws! He accepted them. Embraced them. Put them on public display for all to see. Love him or hate him. Think what you want about him. Say what you want about him. He was Prince. He was himself. He was here. His legacy proves just that!