For Charlene Friend, recent reports that prescription pills found hidden in an Aleve bottle at Prince's Paisley Park estate could have been counterfeit drugs containing the powerful narcotic fentanyl, is yet another painful reminder of how the late singer hid his drug use from those around him.

During their years together, Friend, 44, who was sued by her former boyfriend in 2003 when she attempted to sell some of his gifts to her, insists to PEOPLE that she never witnessed Prince do drugs.

But in the decades that have elapsed since their split – and his death on April 21 from an overdose of the opiate fentanyl – she's begun to understand just how much of his life he kept hidden.

"He would sometimes stay up for five days at a time without sleep, food or even water, going nonstop back and forth to the studio," recalls Friend. "I had to sneak in catnaps to keep from passing out from exhaustion. The first time that happened, I asked him, 'How do you do this?'"

Prince, says Friend, just smiled, stared deep into her eyes and said: "Angel food. Food of the spirit, not of the flesh."

Issue is dated September 12^th

Please use the current absurdities and gossip thread here http://prince.org/msg/7/430929