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 did not provide further details. (Us Weekly has reached out to the Prince estate for comment.)
“She had her own mind. She’s in a better place,” her half-sister, Sharon Nelson, told the outlet.
Tyka — who was two years younger than her famous brother — died early Monday, according to the newspaper.
Like Prince and her parents, jazz singer Mattie Della Shaw Baker and musician John L. Nelson, Tyka was an accomplished musician who recorded and released four studio albums between 1988 and 2011.
According to the Star Tribune, Tyka was due to retire from music in June with one final concert set to take place in Minneapolis. However, she fell ill and didn’t make it.
“I’m getting older. I really wasn’t a singer. I’m a writer. I just happen to be able 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 cause of 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 four days before his death.
“He kept avoiding questions. I kept getting mad,” Tyka said. “I felt like, ‘Talk to me for two seconds.’ He’d change the subject, make a joke and then we’d both laugh. He asked me could I find more information about our family. Prince wanted me to find [half-sister] Sharon’s number. I didn’t question it. It was like, ‘Send this picture to that person.’ OK. What for?”
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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 trip to London to promote a Prince exhibition in 2017. “They lined up to tell me stories. Women would tell me, ‘I’m going to kill myself and then I put on this [Prince] song or heard it on the radio and I didn’t want 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.