jaawwnn said:

Rebeljuice said:

Ive also just reread a thread from back in 2011 about Manuela posting on her Facebook page something along the lines of hoping Prince doesnt go on a TV chatshow like Charlie Sheen just did (paraphrazing), in response to a drug fueled rant Sheen went on. She then apologised later on saying she never meant to be hurtful but it was a slippery slope being surrounded by yes people and enablers.

So, it seems there were very subtle leaks about his problems going back a few years.

Yeah, i'm trying to be careful in what i'm saying here because i'm going by memory, I got the impression back then that he was strongly rumoured to be taking painkillers and/or be in a great bit of hip pain and W&L basically said "we're not sure, we have heard things about him taking a lot of pills for pain but we haven't been speaking to him, we hope he's ok". It sticks out in my mind because they're pretty straight talking and if they said they heard something that'd give it some credence to me.

If this was just before he got surgery in 2010 (another rumour!) then it would make sense, but it would also make sense that he stopped taking them after getting the surgery.

But it's a lot of unconfirmed rumours piled on top of each other, along with my own faulty memory.

[Edited 5/17/16 3:24am]

They said he was in some pain, not that he was taking pain killers. I think it was even on the interview they did here on the org.