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Manuela brings sanity to hedonistic Prince's life!
London | April 12, 2004 4:41:42 PM IST

There's a new transformation in pop star Prince's life. The man, who once outraged a nation with the song Sexy MF, has bid adieu to wild parties, womanising and to his bizarre all-purple lifestyle.
According to The Mirror, the 45-year-old's hedonistic excesses have been replaced with door-to-door preaching and Bible study classes. And, all this is because of his 27-year-old wife, Manuela.

The fan-turned-employee-turned-spouse has stood by his side as he embraced his new faith and it is she who has helped him return to the musical spotlight after years of obscurity.

Prince, who has romanced a string of women, including Sheena Easton, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, Madonna, Kim Basinger, Kristin Scott Thomas and Carmen Electra, has never been a big fan of monogamy.

But now, in middle age, he seems to have taken to it with Manuela. The road to their marriage is a strange combination of fairytale and stalker fantasy.

Manuela was an avid Prince fan as a teenager. Her passion for the diminutive musician continued at York University in Toronto where she studied for a degree in art.

Mani was a frequent visitor to the Internet fan club alt.music.prince, a forum devoted to her then hero and now husband. Manuela graduated from university in the summer of 1998, and soon after she landed her dream job working with the singer. A year later, she became his assistant. Rumors quickly began to circulate that she was more than just a member of staff before his marriage to first wife Mayte Garcia was annulled in May 2000. Less than three years earlier, Mayte had given birth to the couple's son Gregory, who tragically only lived a week before dying from the rare bone condition Pfeiffer Syndrome, a genetic skull deformity.

Soon after the annulment of the first marriage, Prince, who was once worth 100 million pounds, took Manuela with him to Bible study classes with the Jehovah's Witnesses.

After a hush-hush romance, the superstar and his fan tied the knot in a Jehovah's Witness wedding in Hawaii on New Year's Eve 2001.

A year later in a private ceremony at the Kingdom Hall in Chanhassen, Minnesota, Prince and Mani was baptized into their new faith in front of the 167-strong congregation. (ANI)