Prince’s sister, singer Tyka Nelson, has died at the age of 64, her family has confirmed.
Tyka’s son, President Nelson, first shared the news of her death with The Star Stand but no cause of death or further details were given.
A Facebook post from Charles ‘Chazz’ Smith added: “Our family is deeply saddened to share the news of my cousin Tyka Evene Nelson, who passed away this morning.”
Tyka, the daughter of John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw Nelson, was Prince’s only full sibling. Sharon Nelson, her sister, told the Tribune on Monday: “She had her own opinions. She’s in a better place.’
Tyka fell ill earlier this year and had to miss her own retirement and farewell concert in June at the Dakota in New York.
Between 1988 and 2011, she released four albums titled Royal Blue in 1988, Yellow Moon, Red Sky in 1992, A Brand New Me in 2008 and Hustler in 2011.
Prince’s sister, singer Tyka Nelson, has died at the age of 64, her family has confirmed
“I’m getting older,” the singer told the Minnesota Star Tribune just before her final show. ‘I really wasn’t a singer. I am a writer. I happen to be able to sing. I love singing.’
Tyka also revealed earlier this year that she was working on a memoir.
She made her last public appearance in Australia in 2018 with a Prince tribute show.
Ahead of the 2018 show, Tyka spoke about the influence her late brother, who died in 2016, has had on her own musical career.
In an interview with The daily telegraph, she revealed that she had sought solace in the loss of her brother through his music.
She further explained that her first song was recorded as a tribute to her brother and their parents.
The song, titled End Of The Road, was produced and recorded at his Paisley Park headquarters exactly a year after his death.
‘That song was my way of telling the world how I felt. And I did what he had begged me to do all those years: go to Paisley Park to shoot,” she told the publication.
While Prince was adamant that Tkya start her own recording career, Tyka said she refused to encroach on his space in the fame game.
Tyka’s son, President Nelson, first shared the news of her death with The Star Tribune, but no cause of death or further details were provided (Tykaa pictured in 2017)
‘Previously I didn’t want that because I wanted a separate (musical) identity; “I knew he could make music, but I didn’t know if I could,” she admitted.
During a 2017 interview, Tyka revealed that she predicted her brother would die three years before his death.
She explained that she “sensed” the worst was coming after her musical icon brother called her one day and said he had “done everything I came to do.”
Speaking on ITVs Lorraine about Prince’s drug overdose, Tyka admitted that this was the first time she didn’t use drugs and alcohol to mask the pain of her grief.
Tyka told stand-in host Christine Lampard: “I was at McDonald’s and I got a call from an unknown number.
“He said, ‘Is this Tyka?’ It’s Prince here’, and I said, ‘After all this time I know your voice, I know who you are’.
“We were just walking and talking and he said, ‘I think I’ve done everything I came to do,’ so that was him telling me it was time.”
She explained that from then on she had been ‘waiting’ for his tragic death.
“I thought I was going to buy earrings for his funeral, I’m going to buy a necklace for his funeral and I’m planning this, I’m telling all my relatives that Prince is passing away, and so it was actually three years before he died. the time I got a call at McDonald’s.
“So when I got the call that he had passed, I immediately knew what they meant because I was just waiting for that day.”
Tyka added, “I don’t know if it’s Native American history – we feel things as a people.”
She also opened up about her “struggles” and admitted that she had experienced harrowing “ups and downs” since Prince’s death at the age of 57.
‘I had the hardest time [out of all her siblings]. We had spent our whole lives together. It probably only happened to me last October,” she said at the time.
‘I still have my days, but it’s getting better. I can already see myself at the concert, the first time I heard the demo tape.’
Tyka bravely revealed: ‘This is the first time I haven’t used drugs and alcohol to mask the pain of grief.
“This is the first time that what I feel comes out in music, and not in the form of drugs and alcohol.”
Tyka and her brother bonded in his final years after a difficult stretch in their relationship when Tyka struggled with an addiction to crack cocaine.
She explained that when her parents died, she fell off the wagon, but Prince supported her and helped her financially when she went to rehab.
Tyka also revealed the story behind the three beaded braids on the right side of her hair, which symbolize her late mother, father and prince.
She revealed that when she dies, her braid on the left side will be moved to join the others on the right side.