Prince Gave Carmen Electra Her Name & Put Kim Basinger’s Moans In a Song
It’s no secret that Prince was preoccupied with matters of the heart (and the, uh, loins). Every Prince album is packed with songs of love and lust; he once even named a tour “The Nude Tour.” So it’s no shock that the man also had a complicated love life. But while Prince was generally tight-lipped about his relationships, many of his former paramours have been a little more outspoken. Here’s what they had to say about dating the greatest singer-songwriter to ever change his name to an unpronounceable symbol.
Sherilyn Fenn (1984)
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Actress Sherilyn Fenn is best known for her Emmy-nominated performance as Audrey Horne on Twin Peaks. But back when she was a struggling young actress appearing in teen movies like Just One of the Guys, Fenn had a brief relationship with Prince, shortly before going on to date Johnny Depp.
In two 2009 blog spots, Fenn described her experience of meeting Prince while out with friends at an LA nightclub, then accompanying him back to a recording studio. “To be with [Prince] in his environment is to enter a kingdom like no other,” Fenn wrote. She felt awestruck in his presence, but this “never seemed to bother him. Like he could see a me inside that I had not even discovered myself … As I write, I am discovering what a deep effect he had on me on all of these levels.” Though the two only dated for a short time, they remained friends for years.
After Prince’s 2016 death, she told People, “Prince inspired me. He changed my life. I will miss him greatly. There will only ever be one Prince.”
Sheila E. (1985-1989)
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She’s best known for her Prince-produced 1984 hit “The Glamorous Life.” But when Sheila E. met Prince in the ’70s, she was just a drummer from a percussionist family — her father is noted Latin percussionist Pete Escovedo. She and Prince spent several years as friends and collaborators; though, as she noted in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, Prince was interested romantically. “I came from a time of trying to stay away from sleeping with people that you work with,” she said. “But then we couldn’t resist each other.”
The two became romantically involved during the Purple Rain tour in 1985 (a timeline that may have overlapped with his relationship with Susannah Melvoin, Prince’s girlfriend, muse, and sister of his bandmate). Prince and E. broke up after the 1989 Lovesexy tour. Infidelity strained the couple — “I guess there are some women that don’t care if there’s the other woman. I do care. We shouldn’t be sharing each other,” E. said. But they also just grew apart: “I loved everything that we did together but [we were] at a place [where] it didn’t feel right to either of us.”
About his death, she said “I’m mad that he’s not here. I’m angry at him, and I’m thinking: ‘What could I have done?’”
>> Sheila E to be Honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Kim Basinger (1989)
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Basinger starred as Vicki Vale in the original Batman film — a situation that introduced her to Prince, who was writing the film’s soundtrack. Basinger fell for the “Purple Rain” singer, telling The Daily Beast in 2011 that he was a “brilliant talent,” and “I don’t really have boundaries, so I enjoyed that time of my life. It was a really special moment in time, and I have great memories.”
Though the romance allegedly culminated in Basinger briefly skipping out of Hollywood to live in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, we don’t have any proof of that. We do, however, have proof of the long-rumored album Prince helped produce for Basinger, Hollywood Affair. Though their collaboration was never released in any official capacity, it was unofficially released by a German record label in 1997, and like all things, eventually leaked onto the internet. The last four songs on the album, which have titles like “The Color of Sex,” are said to be Prince compositions, and their style will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent too much time singing “When Doves Cry” into a hair brush.
Another musical collaboration between Basinger and Prince? A remix of his Batman soundtrack song “Scandalous” called “The Scandalous Sex Suite,” in which Basinger’s voice is instantly recognizable in the song’s sexy spoken word interludes. Were the passionate moans heard in the song actually recorded during a sexual encounter between the two, as has long been whispered? A 1989 article in the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper about the song’s recording noted this about the rumors:
Paisley Park Records vice president Alan Leeds visited the studio when Prince and Basinger were recording their vocals, but he left when Prince opened a jar of honey. “I think the fact that he felt uncomfortable enough to leave the studio tells you something,” said [Jill Willis, Prince’s publicist]. “I don’t think they were making tea.”
The sounds start at around 12:26 in the song, so listen and make your own call (honey optional).
>> From Vicky Vale to Bond Girl: Kim Basinger’s Best Movie Roles
Carmen Electra (1991-93)
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When Carmen Electra met Prince, she was still Tara Leigh Patrick. The actress, model and TV host met the singer when she was 18, and one of his producers asked her to audition for a singing group he was putting together. “He was standing in a doorway looking very mysterious” the first time they met, Electra told Vanity Fair in 2023.
The band didn’t work out, but Prince kept his eye on Electra, and by 1991, he arranged for her to move to Paisley Park so that they would live and work together. Prince wrote songs for Electra, arranged for photo shoots, and even gave her the name “Carmen Electra” — the singer said, “You’re not a Tara. You’re Carmen.” “It was over time that I fell in love with him,” Electra said. “He was very soft-spoken, very kind, very funny.”
Though they dated while she lived at Paisley Park, Electra didn’t occupy the same bedroom as Prince. She had her own room, where she slept in full hair and makeup with heels at her bedside, so that she could be prepared if Prince made an unannounced late night visit. Though Prince promised her they were exclusive, Electra suspected he was romantically involved with other young female musicians he was working with.
After her 1993 solo album failed to find an audience, she decided to leave Prince and his Minnesota world behind; the singer lent Electra an LA apartment to ease her transition. When her show business career struggled, he offered her a gig dancing at his nightclub, Glam Slam, which directly led to the Playboy centerfolds that would launch her career.
Upon the singer’s death, she told People, “The world has lost a truly incredible spirit and musical genius. What a blessing it is to be one of the chosen ones who had the chance to work so closely with him. He gave me my name, he believed in me, and he has inspired an entire generation. I will always love him.”
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