I'm sure this has already been posted but I don't recall seeing it. The article is below from

http://www.eonline.com/Ne...24,00.html

Prince Buys Palace for Secret Bride?

by Barry Brown
Mar 7, 2002, 2:25 PM PT

Maybe we should start calling him the Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Who Hates Contracts.

Prince has over the years tossed aside his name, the symbol replacing his name, his recording contracts and a marriage all to sever himself from those earthly ties that bind.

Has he suddenly had a change of heart?

According to several reports, the reclusive rocker has secretly married a former employee 18 years his junior and bought a house for them in Toronto.

Despite ending his three-year marriage to dancer Mayte Garcia because he said he did not believe in the "social conventions" of a marriage contract, Prince reportedly tied the knot on New Year's Eve with Manuela Testolini, a 25-year-old Canadian from Toronto who used to work at Prince's Paisley Park Studios outside Minneapolis.

The two purportedly got married on the sly in a small Jehovah's Witness ceremony in Hawaii.

Flying even further from his previous condemnations of business formalities, the couple has, according to Toronto's National Post, purchased a $3.5 million mansion in one of the city's richest neighborhoods. Prince's bride has a new home on the Bridle Path.

Land registry records uncovered by the newspaper indicate the sprawling, secluded home was bought by a company called Gamillah Holdings, whose president just happens to be Testolini.

While it doesn't appear that Prince is ready to abandon his headquarters at Paisley Park, the alleged new home does have its advantages. The estate lies on a quiet, curving street called the Bridle Path, which gives the area its name. Dotted by huge mansions and towering trees, the area is a short drive from downtown Toronto and is a preferred neighborhood for the city's corporate elite.

Prince's spokeswoman, Jessica Brenner of Susan Blond Inc., could not confirm the reports of his marriage and house-hunting. "He doesn't tell me anything personally related," she says.

If the reports are true, this would mark the second marriage for the eccentric 43-year-old rocker, whose full name is Prince Roger Nelson. He and Garcia married in 1996 and dissolved their union in 1998 in what he called a symbolic gesture. ("Mayte and I are joined for life," he said at the time, "and the best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that people demand.")

Following a re-commitment ceremony in 1999, it is believed they split for good in 2000 (about the same time Prince went back to using his name)--although reps for the fiercely private singer wouldn't confirm it.

During their union, they had a son who died soon after birth of a rare bone disorder.

As for Prince's latest coupling, there is no word on when he and Testolini might take up residence in Toronto. The Post reports renovation work is underway and Gamillah Holdings, after handing over a down payment of about $900,000, has been making its mortgage payments since January 1.

If and when he heads north, Prince will join a number of well-known Americans who have taken up residence in and around Toronto. They include: Lucy Johnson, the daughter of former U.S. president Lyndon Johnson, and cottagers Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.