Besides Prince, she was dating a whole lot of famous men; allegedly Rick James ( although I think it was just a fling not a relationship), Adam Ant ( was it before or after Prince? He had a song called Vanity on his 1983 album "Strip"),John Stamos ( probably when they were shooting " Never too young to die"- some sources say even Gene Simmons), Nikki Sixx ( she claimed they were engaged), Micki Free ( wasn't he hangin' with Prince at the time?), Bill Idol (rebound after Nikki), Andre Cymone, some say even Morris Day ( "Cause an old friend of mine got lost in the jive/ Little did she know, when you're stuck in the snow /Nobody gets out alive" ), Eddie Murphy, James Debarge, Michael Bolton, a certain Robbie Bruce, photographer Daniel Poulin, Anthony Smith (she married him in 1995).

Was she dating anyone else?

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[Edited 3/19/14 20:27pm]

[Edited 4/4/14 4:43am]

[Edited 4/4/14 4:44am]

[Edited 4/4/14 7:51am]

Is there anyone she didn't date? ....well, yes! that would be me

I remember,immediately after she left Prince,she was spotted hanging out at an L.A. nightclub with Andre Cymone,and then a few weeks later,she was dating Micki Free.I always thought that she was seeing these guys just to get back at Prince and make him jealous

SoulAlive said:

nursev said:

Well...she was liked alot there are men still crushing on Denise to this day

She's the second most beautiful girl in the world in my book

databank said:

nursev said:

databank said:

She's the second most beautiful girl in the world in my book

sweet...1st?

An Indian girl named Naina I met years ago. She was so awesome I almost fainted when she came and spoke to me. U know like wondering if this was for real because that woman just couldn't be real! We chatted for about half a hour, then she left cuz she had things to do, and we met again a couple of times and chatted a few minutes in the next few days, then I had to leave that place. Never saw her again and probably won't ever see her again, though we're friends on FB (she's married now).

I'll never forget the moment I saw her for the first time: it was almost a metaphysical experience, I can't even imagine how dating her would have felt (and still I've been with a few girls you'd probably call extremely beautiful, but nothing to do with Naina, she was something else).

databank said:

John Witherspoon?

Carl Weathers?

Rudy Ray Moore?

Scatman Crothers?

crenshawOG said:

John Witherspoon?

Carl Weathers?

Rudy Ray Moore?

Scatman Crothers?

Don Cornelius?

Fred Williamson?

Redd Foxx?

SoulAlive said:

I remember,immediately after she left Prince,she was spotted hanging out at an L.A. nightclub with Andre Cymone,and then a few weeks later,she was dating Micki Free.I always thought that she was seeing these guys just to get back at Prince and make him jealous

What about Albert Magnoli? Was that also part of the "making Prince jealous" plan?

But who could've blamed her for hangin' with Andre Cymone He was such a hunk. And still is.

What's interesting is after being rumored to have messed around, or at least gotten high with James Debarge, Vanity did background guest vocals on El Debarge's song "Secrets of the Night". I wonder if she messed around with El too...

Even Mark Fuhrman, the would-be racist detective in the OJ Simpson case, hit on Vanity years ago. He supposedly pulled her over for speeding. I remember during OJ's trial, they brought it up how Fuhrman couldn't possibly be a racist because he hit on a black woman. They were even talking about putting Vanity on the stand at one point!

He wanted Vanity but he didn't think she was black. Vanity said a lot of people thought she was Puerto Rican back then because she was light skinned.

They interviewed Vanity for Jet or something during the trial and she said "back then" in the 80s a lot of people didn't know she was part black. A lot of people thought she was latina.

femaletrouble said:

crenshawOG said:

John Witherspoon?

Carl Weathers?

Rudy Ray Moore?

Scatman Crothers?

Don Cornelius?

Fred Williamson?

Redd Foxx?

Jim Kelly?

Robert Guillaume?

Gary Coleman?

Morris Buchanan?

crenshawOG said:

femaletrouble said:

Don Cornelius?

Fred Williamson?

Redd Foxx?

Jim Kelly?

Robert Guillaume?

Gary Coleman?

Morris Buchanan?

Bill Duke?

Leon Isaac Kennedy?

Richard Pryor?

Mr. T?

[Edited 4/3/14 0:39am]

Nikki Sixx in his book made it seem like he never really like Vanity and it was an one way relationship but if you read articles from the 80's he was the one who chased her.

In 1986 he was watching MTV and they were still showing "Nasty Girl" video. He saw it for the first time and was taken by Vanity, so he had his people set up a date with her people. According to Nikki they really had nothing in common except drugs.

Nevertheless they were engaged and planned on getting married in 1987 in Egypt but then he broke it off. Tommy Lee even mentioned a fight one time that ended with Nikki flushing Vanity's ring down the toilet.

From Nikki's "Heroin diaries"- "Our relationship was one of the strangest, most self-destructive ones I've ever had. We would binge together for a week, and then not see each other for three weeks. One afternoon when I was at her house, a dozen roses from Prince arrived with a note saying "Drop him. Take me back." At the time, I fell for it, but now I think she was just manipulating me. Prince probably never sent her any flowers".

on engagement-"One night, Vanity asked me to marry her. I said yes just because I was f****d up, the idea was surreal, and it was easier than saying no. The relationship was just about drugs and entertainment, not love or sex or even friendship. But when she was high in an interview, she told the press we were engaged. She always found a way to make my life as difficult as possible"

"Whenever she came out to meet us, she'd annoy me, the rest of the band, and the road crew by riding a bicycle around the stage in the middle of rehearsal or doing something else obnoxious".

February 26th, 1987

Nikki Sixx writes:" Could I pay someone to kill my girlfriend?

Vanity came to rehearsal...Jesus I try to look my best normal around the band and then she shows up like that. A year ago I would have been ashamed at her cackling, throwing those f***ing

Prince dance moves and hanging off my neck while I was trying to play. I told her to shut up and she got in my face and asked what I was gonna do. What could I do? I just turned and walked out. Left her there with the guys".

Denise Matthews:"Nikki and I had very different tastes in music, religion, food, movies-you name it. It made for a relationship built on chaos and confusion, like two people getting stuck in an avalanche that never stopped rolling downhill. Life was full of surprises, with too many bruises and not enough band-aids. The highs were too high and the lows were as deep as Hades, the home of the dead".

Tommy Lee-" There was something real crazy about Vanity. She would just turn up at a rehearsal and jump up on a road case and start dancing randomly, out of nowhere. We'd be trying to rehearse and Vanity would be doing this strange little burlesque show. When I first met her, she seemed cool, but then it all changed."

Vanity rebounded by hooking up with Billy Idol for a short time

Vanity doing "Samuelle" at the 1985 Motown Revue-this was the show in which it was reported that she infamously did drugs in the dressing room with James Debarge and Janet Jackson went back there and chased her out.

She hinted (and later confirmed) in her interviews in the early 90s after dropping the Vanity persona, that she "tried everything" including women.

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[Edited 4/3/14 2:21am]

nursev said:

databank said:

An Indian girl named Naina I met years ago. She was so awesome I almost fainted when she came and spoke to me. U know like wondering if this was for real because that woman just couldn't be real! We chatted for about half a hour, then she left cuz she had things to do, and we met again a couple of times and chatted a few minutes in the next few days, then I had to leave that place. Never saw her again and probably won't ever see her again, though we're friends on FB (she's married now).

I'll never forget the moment I saw her for the first time: it was almost a metaphysical experience, I can't even imagine how dating her would have felt (and still I've been with a few girls you'd probably call extremely beautiful, but nothing to do with Naina, she was something else).

she sounds like a beautiful lady...really touching story.

does anyone else believe that the song "Samuelle" is really about Prince? In this song,she even makes a reference to "the prince and the showgirl".

femaletrouble said:

SoulAlive said:

I remember,immediately after she left Prince,she was spotted hanging out at an L.A. nightclub with Andre Cymone,and then a few weeks later,she was dating Micki Free.I always thought that she was seeing these guys just to get back at Prince and make him jealous

What about Albert Magnoli? Was that also part of the "making Prince jealous" plan?

yeah,I forgot about him It's been said that Prince was heavily involved with Susan Moonsie of Vanity 6,and that probably infuriated Vanity.In a 1984 interview,she explained one of the reasons why she left Prince: "I needed one person to love me.Prince needed more".

femaletrouble said:

crenshawOG said:

Jim Kelly?

Robert Guillaume?

Gary Coleman?

Morris Buchanan?

Bill Duke?

Leon Isaac Kennedy?

Richard Pryor?

Mr. T?

[Edited 4/3/14 0:39am]

Antonio Fargas?

Ron O'Neal?

Bernie Casey?

Ron Lyle?

SoulAlive said:

does anyone else believe that the song "Samuelle" is really about Prince? In this song,she even makes a reference to "the prince and the showgirl".

It seems that way.

And even on the "Skin on Skin" album in the credits it says special thanks 2 "Prince.. for Dreams Come True."

I do think "Samuelle" was about Prince. The line about "the prince and the showgirl" is probably Vanity's comparison between her relationship with Prince and the movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe.

BTW in an interview I read on the org in the last year or so Andre Cymone confirmed he dated Vanity and that Vanity would have been in his video for "The Dance Electric" but something contractual got in the way. Can y'all imagine how pissed Prince would have been to see Vanity dancing with Andre in a music video?

Vanity in her pre-Vanity days also dated a photographer in Montreal (she briefly lived/worked there) who would later shoot her album pics for "Wild Animal".

Shard said:

I do think "Samuelle" was about Prince. The line about "the prince and the showgirl" is probably Vanity's comparison between her relationship with Prince and the movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe.

BTW in an interview I read on the org in the last year or so Andre Cymone confirmed he dated Vanity and that Vanity would have been in his video for "The Dance Electric" but something contractual got in the way. Can y'all imagine how pissed Prince would have been to see Vanity dancing with Andre in a music video?

Vanity in her pre-Vanity days also dated a photographer in Montreal (she briefly lived/worked there) who would later shoot her album pics for "Wild Animal".

interesting. tnx 4 the info

Just because Vanity was rumored to date someone, or she was photographed with someone, doesn't mean that she actually dated the person. Don't be naive.

Tommy and Nikki accusing Vanity of being weird is hilarious, considering all the stories of the two. They were all on drugs and running wild back then, so none has any room to call anyone weird or strange.

And lastly, when a person is hurt and/or angry with someone, they usually say things (including lies) that they will later regret saying.

StyleandFashion said:

Just because Vanity was rumored to date someone, or she was photographed with someone, doesn't mean that she actually dated the person. Don't be naive.

Tommy and Nikki accusing Vanity of being weird is hilarious, considering all the stories of the two. They were all on drugs and running wild back then, so none has any room to call anyone weird or strange.

And lastly, when a person is hurt and/or angry with someone, they usually say things (including lies) that they will later regret saying.

That's why I said "allegedly". But some of them are confirmed ( Adam Ant, Micki Free, Andre Cymone, Nikki Sixx) by these people and Vanity herself.

Agree on that one, but thought it would be interesting to share Tommy's and Nikki's remarks

Lighten up

kenkamken said:

femaletrouble said:

StyleandFashion said:

Just because Vanity was rumored to date someone, or she was photographed with someone, doesn't mean that she actually dated the person. Don't be naive.

Tommy and Nikki accusing Vanity of being weird is hilarious, considering all the stories of the two. They were all on drugs and running wild back then, so none has any room to call anyone weird or strange.

And lastly, when a person is hurt and/or angry with someone, they usually say things (including lies) that they will later regret saying.

That's why I said "allegedly". But some of them are confirmed ( Adam Ant, Micki Free, Andre Cymone, Nikki Sixx) by these people and Vanity herself.

Agree on that one, but thought it would be interesting to share Tommy's and Nikki's remarks

Lighten up

I was just saying...it was interesting reading what they said.