Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson has died at 64.
Tyka’s son, President Nelson, shared news of his mother’s death with the Minnesota Star Tribune on Tuesday, November 5, but didn’t provide further details. (Us Weekly has reached out to the Prince estate for comment.)
“She had her own mind. She’s in a greater place,” her half-sister, Sharon Nelson, told the outlet.
Tyka — who was two years younger than her famous brother — died early Monday, in response to the newspaper.
Like Prince and her parents, jazz singer Mattie Della Shaw Baker and musician John L. Nelson, Tyka was an achieved musician who recorded and released 4 studio albums between 1988 and 2011.
In line with the Star Tribune, Tyka was on account of retire from music in June with one final concert set to happen in Minneapolis. Nonetheless, she fell sick and didn’t make it.
“I’m getting older. I actually wasn’t a singer. I’m a author. I just occur to give you the chance to sing. I enjoy singing,” she told the outlet ahead of the concert.
Prince was found dead in an elevator at his Paisley Park compound in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on April 21, 2016. He was 57. His reason behind death was ruled an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl.
Prince Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
The star’s sister told the Star Tribune in June that she last spoke to him 4 days before his death.
“He kept avoiding questions. I kept getting mad,” Tyka said. “I felt like, ‘Check with me for 2 seconds.’ He’d change the topic, make a joke after which we’d each laugh. He asked me could I find more details about our family. Prince wanted me to search out [half-sister] Sharon’s number. I didn’t query it. It was like, ‘Send this picture to that person.’ OK. What for?”
Tyka also said that she didn’t realize how popular her brother was until after his death.
“I didn’t know Prince was that big,” she recalled a visit to London to advertise a Prince exhibition in 2017. “They lined up to inform me stories. Women would tell me, ‘I’m going to kill myself after which I placed on this [Prince] song or heard it on the radio and I didn’t wish to die.’ That’s so wonderful. So now you’re going to make me cry.”
Tyka and Prince also had five half-siblings: Sharon, Norrine and John Nelson (who died in 2021), Alfred Jackson (who died in 2019) and Omarr Baker.
