Prince protege Vanity dead at 57

Matthews expressed no regrets about leaving her superstar way of life behind.

In December, Matthews had just released a new book entitled “Blame It On Vanity”.

In addition to performing music, Matthews also enjoyed a successful acting career, with roles in the films “The Last Dragon”, “52 Pick-Up” and “Action Jackson”.

She told Jet that drug use had almost killed her: She had had renal failure a few years earlier and was told by doctors that she had only three days to live. “I don’t have a television”, she told her hometown paper, the Niagrara Falls Review, in 2007. She had such a presence without saying a word.

According to Complex, Matthews was battling kidney failure, which was the last of many health issues she previously had. At 17, she moved to NY to pursue a modeling career, and in 1980 she ran into Prince at an awards show.

“I was sick inside”. “I am raising funds for my life’s work in the ministry, my book and, as I said before, my ongoing bills”. Subsequently, she dropped her stage name and became a Christian evangelist.

Matthews had been married to LA Raiders player Anthony Smith in 1995 for a year, after which she was briefly engaged to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx.

Ms Matthews launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign in September 2014, and told fans she had been diagnosed with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis – an inflammation of the small intestines. Explaining her racial background to her classmates was annoying, she said; alleged abuse at the hands of her alcoholic dad, who died in 1974, was barely survivable.

“All I had become was thus painted on my face – vanity”, she later wrote on a personal website. He dedicated songs to his ex-girlfriend. They “used to like one another deeply”, Prince stated, in response to the newspaper.

“I was hospitalized with my blood pressure at 250 over 190”, she said. “I threw her out at about 8 a.m. She was getting insane and telling me about God”. “She was such a vibrant human being”. Hell is equivalent to pain, and who digs pain forever?

Rapper MC Hammer paid tribute to Vanity via Twitter on Monday. She was later ordained as a minister and preached in churches around the country. “I was looking for her Sunday and the announcement came that she fell ill during the night”.

Born Denise Matthews, Vanity worked as a model before being discovered by Prince. Originally called “The Hookers” (per Wikipedia), the group would be renamed Vanity 6, and the only hit off their eponymous single album in 1982 would be “Nasty Girl”, which was featured on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.