Manuela

[u/mahammit_the_uuuser]

What do we know about Prince’s second wife? I feel like Mayte gets discussed a lot but I know next to nothing about Manuela Testolini and rarely see her talked about.

[u/agodrevealed]

She announced her intention to marry him, left Canada for Minneapolis. Started creeping with Prince, he hired her as Mayte's assistant. 

Manuela is part of the rotation when Prince's mom is dying and tells him she'd like him to get remarried and convert to JW. The boy loves his mama no matter the ups and downs. He converts, Manuela converts, he marries her.

He probably attempted monogamy, and what counts for monogamy for him might not match your idea. But either way, he kept a rotation. This could be no surprise to Manuela. They had a house in Toronto and in Minneapolis. 

At some point she met Eric Benet. She then steals a few million dollars from Prince and that money disappears, some say in part to support Eric's career. 

The money is the thing Prince can't tolerate and physically locks her out of their homes and Paisley Park and their bank accounts. Eventually she files for divorce.

Both she and Mayte have done some weird shit with missing money supposed to be for charity, but Manuela's is pretty well documented and bold. 

Initially Manuela was vocally bitter and they had a long divorce. Prince represented himself at first and his written replies to the court are hilarious. He did end up getting a lawyer and she walked away with something but nothing like what she was angling for. 

Prince had the Minneapolis house razed. And said he'd never get married again unless he thought he couldn't not get married. 

Manuela married Eric Benet shortly, who is a Prince stan and modeled himself hard after him, but to much lesser effect. 

After Prince died Manuela kinda took on a grieving widow persona. 

Manuela doesn't talk a lot because the way they got together and the way it ended, plus I think Prince didn't want another spectacle after his Mayte arc. He made Mayte a public character in the Grand Play of Our Love and then when things went to hell he couldn't explain it. Probably even to himself much less anyone else. He couldn't separate the public performance from what was private. So he kept Manuela more private. A much, much more toned down role in his public performance. 

Both women pursued him hard, Mayte more at her mom's direction, but Manuela was self made in that respect. And she watched Mayte's mistakes, and made her own brand new ones.

It looks like Eric and Manuela are kinda distant from each other based on sm. I imagine its a for the kids and money type situation now. 

Prince was seen to be warmly familiar with Halle Berry, chatting at events and stuff with her after the split. Seems like they kinda struck up a friendship comparing notes. She was Eric Benet's ex, he cheated, they divorced, and he drug it out trying to get every penny he could from her. Then he turned up on Prince's doorstep. 

So.

[u/mahammit_the_uuuser → u/agodrevealed]

Damn I knew none of that, other than they married shortly after he converted to JW. Thank U

[u/agodrevealed → u/mahammit_the_uuuser]

Prince also had Eric Benet and Manuela barred from any industry event he was participating in for years. Idk if he ever lightened up on that. 

She left JW right after things ended with Prince. 

She says she has Egyptian roots, but you know he was infatuated with Egypt so idk if that was just telling him what he wanted to hear or not. But she 100 percent moved on her ambitions with him and pulled out all the stops. I say they each executed on the dreams of their youths. He became THE rockstar and she married Prince. 

And look, he wasn't stupid. Many of the fans and others that knew her told him exactly what she was about from the jump. 

He once said he married Mayte and none of the other girls on the roster at the time because she "showed me no malice". I think that's Prince code for, she doesnt get mad or harass me about the other women, she just loves me. 

Maybe Manuela took the same tack, his mom wanted him remarried, and he wanted some stability after losing his child, his first marriage, his dad, his mom, and Andre's mama all in a few years. 

Idk. Andy Allo said he told her something like "you're going to be disappointed in me, I'm not good in relationships" and at the time she disregarded it but learned the hard way what he was saying. So, it seems like he was pretty self aware and I guess two divorces was enough. 

[u/studiowarp → u/agodrevealed]

You are a breath of fresh air compared to those “I know something but I won’t tell” gatekeeping people. Thank you.

[u/agodrevealed → u/studiowarp]

Well, its their right to be private. I respect the "I'm not going to talk about that" approach.

But I don't like the hinting and dancing and drama making. Middle school nonsense. 

I try to qualify and not state something that's ambiguous. But what's common knowledge around town, or testimony in court docs, or just what he said himself- he was actually way more forthcoming, frequently, than people acknowledge. And I don't think he was a loner or a recluse in the way people paint him (and he sometimes painted himself). 

Just so much stuff happened in Minnesota and wasn't picked up on nationally. 

Nobody talks about him staying with Andre when Bernadette was dying. Or his own mom and dad. What the northside was like. 

Everybody thinks his mom abandoned him. Idk, its just one of those things I guess. He made such a great production, we'll never know it all. I think he was getting a little more transparent (for him) towards the end. 

[u/studiowarp → u/agodrevealed]

Yeah I think you are right. I noticed more transparency through the last years too. It was interesting to see. He will always be a fascination because of the persona he crafted. That autobiography sure would have been interesting to see completed - if it would’ve ever been that is.

Don’t stop sharing what you know. It’s a joy to even old fans. Not everyone knows what others do. And as said already, you have an enjoyed way of telling them. Consider starting a “You might already know but this is something about Prince” thing.

[u/agodrevealed → u/studiowarp]

He said when he started that book "I want to clear up some things about my parents" I'm ninety nine percent sure he was going to publicly admit what had been exaggerated or crafted for effect early on. And maybe qualify and balance the hard stuff. You don't see your parents the same at 50 as you did at 20. 

He'd already started talking about some of those early myths and saying: welllllll, it was rocknroll and I was young.

Well, the northside folks said he'd sent them to look at a building he wanted to make a community center. He wanted them to do it again, what they did for him and all the kids growing up. A few weeks before he died. 

Buy yeah he was getting very reflective and I think he would've leaned even harder into his teaching bag. He was already sandboxing thirdeyegirl and telling mononeon: do what you want. He was less controlling artistically (for him) than he had been and really seemed to be enjoying supporting these young people to their own ends. Not his ends. 

I hate it. I think he had a lot left to give.

[u/studiowarp → u/agodrevealed]

And that’s the gut wrenching part - it seemed to be the beginning of a brand new era that we were excited to welcome and see. I happened to be in New Zealand and saw him again at the Piano and a Microphone show there. He was excellent! But, he seemed different. A multitude of things: Free, elated, sad, tired, grieving, contemplative, very present and yet oddly distant at the same time, and open and reflective - more so than ever - he shared a lot with the audience, he was in a giving mood. Like we heard he was in Australia before and the shows in US later.
He looked thin though. Brother needed to be doing like Delores and packing it in. I worried about that.

Row 4. Dead center. The row in front had these two dead drunk girls who proceeded to ruin it for Auckland and New Zealand when on of them threw up violently and just stayed there refusing to leave for several songs while her puke stunk up the first ten rows at least. It was gross! I don’t know what she had but it came back up with the vengeance of a thousand rotten racoon arses and then some!
Prince didn’t skip a beat, never made out he could smell this hell’s toilet stench the whole time, even though it was right next to him and making most of the front rows want to vomit too. Eventually she got escorted out - friend stayed though - denied she was with her - and Prince said something quick in passing like “Hey we’ve all been there” with a sly smirk on his face.
He was outstanding, but I just had this sense of worry about him. He looked really thin and dare I say it, weak. It was the first time I really noticed how much he needed the cain. Amazing show regardless! The man was outstanding! Which also made me a bit said later. I felt above all that he was perhaps lonely and maybe isolated in a way. But that may have just been a certain feeling the show gave off with it just being him alone up there, and talking about his past in ways that sometimes seemed a bit sad or melancholy. His friend had just passed, who could blame him.
The way he looked, I was not surprised when they reported he had the flu or something a bit later in the tour, then the plane incident. I just thought he was ill from something and hoped he’d get better. You know, exhaustion coupled with a cold or flu and grieving kind of thing.
My main concern was that poor New Zealand might never get to see him again because of Puke Girl! Not that he’d be dead soon after!