Prince’s Ex Says Singer Was On Cocaine Diet
Prince’s ex girlfriend, Charlene Friend (44), claims the late singer hid his alleged drug use from those around him. However, during their years together, Friend, who was sued by her former boyfriend in 2003 when she attempted to sell some of his gifts to her, insists that she never saw him actually take drugs. She says,
He would sometimes stay up for five days at a time without sleep, food or even water, going nonstop back and forth to the studio. I had to sneak in catnaps to keep from passing out from exhaustion. The first time that happened, I asked him, ‘How do you do this?’
She says, he responded,
Angel food. Food of the spirit, not of the flesh.
When he finally did allow himself to sleep, Friend recalls him making the room pitch black and cranking the heat up to 80 degrees:
He would be shaking all through the night. The first time that happened, I asked him if he was having a nightmare and he said, ‘No. I was dreaming music’. Even in his sleep, the music just poured out of him.
Several years after their split, she had a conversation with Prince’s half-brother Duane Nelson (who passed in 2013), who had spent time working as head of security at Paisley Park, about how the singer was able to stay awake for days at a time. Friend says that his brother revealed that it had nothing to do with “angel food”.
‘We call it the cocaine diet’.
She continues,
It was shocking to me to hear that. He hid it so carefully. I never saw him take even an aspirin. He seemed so health-conscious, always taking vitamins like echinacea and goldenseal.
Over time, Friend alleges that she heard the singer would be “taking pills to come down” from the high he used to get after performing in front of crowds. She says of his personality,
There were no gray areas. One day he would be in a good mood, and the next day he would be in this very deep, dark mood. Part of that was just his personality, but I now realize that the drugs enhanced that.
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