September 23, 2003 issue of the National ENQUIRER

Prince's younger sister is a recovering crack addict who sold her body to support two sons while her brother lived in luxury.
Tyka Nelson 43, says the rock star has helped her financially at times, and he recently enrolled her in the drug rehap program that's kept her clean and sober for months.
But at other times, 45 year-old Prince has turned his back on her, Tyka said. "I love my brother." she told the ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview. "But I'm not a yo-yo. He can't just keep spinning me in and out of his life.
Prince and his sister spent their early years together in northen Minneapolis before Tyka's life spun out of control. While Prince was building a musical empire and earning millions, Tyka was often homeless, working as a prostitute.
"I was a single mother and my boys were babies," Tyka recalled. "I sold my body for food, money and pampers."
Tyka said her lowest point came three years ago, when she was living in a crack house. "I pawned the car Prince had given me and sold the kids' TV for drugs," she told The ENQUIRER.
In April Prince entered her into an expensive rehab program.
"I relapsed once, but I've been clean for three months now," she said. "It's the longest I've been sober and drug-free in years.


Sorry I don't have a scanner so I had to type it out. There is a picture of Tyka and a smaller picture of Prince. Man Tyka looks bad! Old fat and ugly. Looks like she could be Prince's mother!
The front of this ENQUIRER has the main headline. Fingerprint nails laci killer! and there are some cops working at a ocean side crime scene holding a plastic bag.
J.Lo and Ben are pictured at the top left hand corner and Angelina Jolie is pictured at the top right hand corner.

thedog said:

magnificentsynthesizer667 said:

she had kids, kids need pampers

lovebizzare said:

I know that silly! I was just wondering if she was paid in pampers!

Gee, I wonder what she'll do with the money when she sold this story to the enquirer?

Wow!!

well, if i bought her a car and she sold it for crack i would stop helping her out too!

can someone post a pic so we can see her?

So that's what happened to her?

I kinda wondered where she went. I kinda liked her solo album.

Royal, royal blue

imnotsayinthisjust2bnasty said:

Very well stated. I always wondered what happened to Tyka. I liked her debut album very much, and I had her other two albums as well. It's a shame that she let herself get into drugs like she did, but at least she is getting help. Let's hope she stays clean.

dayum!

I hear she is working on new music.

Melody

instead of trying 2 make prince

seem as if he is heartless,

tyka should take responsibility

4 her own bad choices

he could easily have aired

her dirty laundry 2 the press

and told them years ago

how his sister is a crack head

prince chose the higher road

and kept her problem out

of the media


she should have done the same

imnotsayinthisjust2bnasty said:

I'm sayin! Sometimes you can help people but only so much.

At least he enrolled her into a rehab program. Doing a story for the National Enquirer doesn't seem to be a great way to express gratitude for that kind of assistance.

NuPwrSoul said:

exactly...it's so odd, you go and tell the world how you cleaned up...to a friggin tabloid.

ah, well...that's the way of the world.

okay, hold up....this ain't jivin with me:

Tyka Nelson 43, says the rock star has helped her financially at times, and he recently enrolled her in the drug rehap program that's kept her clean and sober for months.
But at other times, 45 year-old Prince has turned his back on her, Tyka said. "I love my brother." she told the ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview. "But I'm not a yo-yo. He can't just keep spinning me in and out of his life.


uhhh, maybe--just maybe--ol' girl kept breakin her brother's trust at times, therefore the back-turnin. you cannot help those who don't wanna be helped, it gets to that point with some folks. it's nice that p helped her out tho', i'll say that much.

I wish they would come up with a drug that would wipe out people's cravings for crack/cocaine.

It's nice to hear about Prince trying to help her again after all these years.

That's so sad. After He enrolls her into a exspensive rehab program that she would even allow a article like that to be put out. If prince is not already numb to her actions, this must really hurt him.

Y'all are making some excellent points on this thread.

Does anybody have the pic of Tyka from the National Enquirer that they can scan and post on here? I would go out and buy it, but chances are that the old Enquirer was probably already replaced by the the new. I think the new editions of those scandal mags comes out on Mondays.

Well you can go look at it in the store while you're in the check-out line. It's on page 63. Alot of the pages don't have numbers, including the one with the story, but it's page 63.

Try http://www.nationalenquirer.com That's what I'm doing now!
[This message was edited Mon Sep 29 10:01:55 PDT 2003 by thedog]

She proved Prince was a good brother by stating he enrolled her into a rehab program- Nuff said on that!
After being an addict for years 3 months is definitely an accomplishment but not enough time to throw a party.- Nuff said on that!

thedog said:

This is pure bullshit. The enquirer is a soiled diaper. No turth to this story. I think I saw a story about Bin Laden and Saddam gay marriage.

Prince has been a good brother IMO.. she's wrong to blame him for 'turning his back on her' there's only so much family members can do,, but as typical of most hard drug abusers they always blame someone else for why they are having problems

One of my best friends has recurring crack/heroin/mental heatlh problems.

There ain't a damn thing you can do for someone when they're like that until they want to help themselves. Even then they still have lapses. Once they're onto that shit, there's never a complete escape. You're either an addict or a recovering addict.

garnis said:

i dunno...remember, chick huntsberry did sumfin very similar to this way back when... eerie, i gotta say...

Tom said:

me too! about 3 years ago i heard about medications used currently for cystic fibrosis that were found to stop crack/cocaine cravings, but as far as clinical trials go, i don't believe they will be done until 2005.

Damn! I tried to go review the article but they already have the September 29th issue on their website.

I don't believe anything I read in the Enquirer. But if what she says is true. I'm sure one of the times Prince turned his back on her was when she traded the car he bought her for crack. Why would he feed her habit?? She herself said 3 months is the longest she has stayed sober. I'm sure if he has read this he feels like she has ripped his heart out. Imagine helping someone like this and having them turn on you. What a...crackhead.

shortnsweet said:

I don't believe anything in the Enquirer either especially after the "MJ: 'Prince is using ESP to control Bubbles!'" story way back in the late 80s. I should really post that again sometime.

NCC2012 said:

that article wuz a laugh riot...