According to some news outlets, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson, 55, greeted fans who gathered outside the late musician’s Paisley Park compound in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on Thursday, April 21, 2016 following the announcement of his death telling fans, ‘”He really loved you all.”
Nelson stands to inherit $800 million from Prince’s death if there is no will because according to Minnesota state law, the wealth of an unmarried individual with no children goes to their grandparents, parents and siblings. Prince’s net worth is $300 million and is predicted to grow by millions over the next few weeks because of increased sales following his death. Prior to his death, he signed a deal with Tidal granting them exclusive rights to stream his music last year for an undisclosed amount. A savvy businessman, Prince’s manager Owen Husney, has reported his catalog is worth over $500 million since he owned his publishing and master recordings.
Tyka once struggled with an addiction to crack cocaine and prostituting herself to support her two young sons, Sir Montece Laeil Nelson and President LenNard Laeil Nelson. She told the National Enquirer in a 2003 interview, “I was a single mother and my boys were babies. I sold my body for food, money and pampers. I pawned the car Prince had given me and sold the kids’ TV for drugs.” Their strained relationship had made a turn for the better in recent years.
She and her brother’s parents, John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw, are both dead and she is his only sibling.
Tyka was born in 1960, started writing music at age 10 and is also a singer. In a 2008 interview with City Pages, she shared that growing up she and her brother would often play music with their parents, who were both successful jazz musicians. She’d sing while Prince would play the piano, the same way her mother sang while her father played the piano.
Tyka is unmarried.
