Nicole Murphy is turning a new leaf.
As the mother of five with an ex-husband who’s a comedy icon, she’s finally stepping into her own with three businesses. On Thursday she stopped by ESSENCE to talk about her line of activewear, beaded jewelry and skincare.
All due next year, we were impressed. But aside from the business ventures, she talked about her time with Eddie Murphy —specifically her encounters with Prince when she was married to Eddie.
Full disclosure: Murphy is a huge Prince fan and met him for the first time before she was married, at the age of 17 as a working model in Paris.
“We were at a Jill Scott show and were getting ready to leave,” Murphy told ESSENCE. “So we start to walk, and we have our entourage of people and then, all of a sudden, we see Prince and his new wife [Manuela]. All of a sudden this big bodyguard comes out, and he’s like, ‘Hey, Prince wants to invite you to his house for dinner.’ And Eddie was like, ‘Cool, yeah.’ And he [Eddie] said ‘Right now?’ And it’s already, like, 11:30 at night! So, I looked at Eddie and I said —and normally I’m the one like, ‘Let’s go in’ because I got these kids to tend to, and I like to be hands on with them— I looked at him and I said, ‘Shiiiiit. We goin’!'”
When they went to Prince’s house, mystery and laughs ensued.
“He gives us the address, we go to this house on Mulholland [Drive], pulled in… Prince and his wife are there, but we don’t see Prince. We only see his wife and his crew. Then we go in, I’m in the kitchen talking to his wife, and she’s making tea, and chit chatting, whatever. Maybe about an hour and a half, finally, he comes downstairs. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Prince!'”
“So then, he comes in, and he’s like ‘I’m sorry I made you guys wait, you guys have a seat.’ So we sit, and Prince is at this side of the table, Eddie’s at this side of the table, I’m next to Eddie, and we have our crew and he has his crew, and his wife. So we’re all starting to eat, and Eddie says, ‘Motherf**ker, what the f*ck took you so goddamn long? We’ve been down here waiting for your motherf**kin’ ass.’ And we were all laughing, and he’s [Prince] like, ‘You see them pretty ears right there?’ —pointing to his wife’s ears— and he goes, ‘You don’t swear in our house. We have a swear jar. So, every swear word you say, you have to put a dollar in the jar.’ Eddie’s like, ‘Well, motherf**ker, give me that f**kin’ jar!'”
In true Prince fashion, the night didn’t end there.
“It’s probably about 3:30, 4:00 in the morning,” Murphy goes on. “And Prince says, ‘Okay, everybody. We’re all going rollerskating.’ I looked at Eddie and I said, ‘Nigga [in serious low tone], we goin’ rollerskating.'”
“So, we jump in the car, and we go down into Burbank, some place in Burbank. We go in, and Eddie’s like, ‘I ain’t skating,’ and I was like, ‘Well, you can sit your ass over there, I’m going!’ I’m putting on my skates with my friends, everybody found skates. And the skating rink had candles all around.”
“It was so damn Prince, right? And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is so cool!’ They’re playing this music, and then, all of a sudden, Prince comes out, and his skates lit up. It was so much fun. We didn’t get home until like seven in the morning. Yeah. Seven in the morning.”