*Ten years after Prince’s death, a woman who knew him intimately is speaking out — and the story she has to tell is far more layered than his estate would like the public to know.
Jill Jones, a backing vocalist who sang on Prince’s landmark album “1999,” was among dozens of contributors to a Netflix documentary directed by Oscar-winner Ezra Edelman. Prince’s estate pulled the series before it ever aired, citing fears it would cause “generational harm” to the musician’s legacy — and Jones found herself squarely in the crosshairs.
According to The Mirror, her account includes a 1984 hotel confrontation that turned violent. After Jones slapped Prince upon seeing him kiss her friend, she claims he punched her repeatedly in the face. She wanted to press charges, but his inner circle intervened.
“I was told I would ruin his career….they saw him as just money for them. They could make a lot of money. It just shows me how many people benefit,” Jones said in a video interview posted to Facebook.
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The Purple Rain tour was weeks away, and those around Prince made clear that his career — and their livelihoods — could not absorb the scandal. His version of an apology followed later. “But basically, after that, we made up because I had a surgery and he gave me a ton of toys, and this is how the apology was: balloons, toys and candy,” she recalled.
Jones carried the weight of the incident for decades. “I’d been holding on to it for so many years….I think, because I was waiting on an apology,” she said. “See, this is the craziest thing with domestic violence: you wait for an apology sometimes from someone that you love, you think they’re going to, and they want to move on and not talk about it, and you allow it.”
Her disbelief grew years later when word reached her that Prince had weighed in supportively on Chris Brown’s behalf after Brown’s violent attack on Rihanna. “I heard that he had given advice to Chris Brown a little bit…and I was like, ‘wow, he must have forgotten,'” she said. The late Sinead O’Connor made similar allegations against Prince, and Jones says she regrets not speaking out alongside her.
Weeks before his death, she saw him at an after-party and was troubled by his appearance. “He was so thin and so little,” she said. “I said, ‘Oh my God. I hope we’re not coming to his funeral next.'” The premonition turned out to be accurate.
On why the documentary matters, Jones was direct. “They want to keep him in a little bag….a little category,” she said. “And they’re actually making it more than what it was, because when you deprive people of knowing something, it eventually comes out.”
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