A filmmaker researching Prince’s final days says insiders he’s spoken to insist that Prince did have a will after all, contrary to legal papers filed by his sister.
Ian Halperin, who is collaborating on a documentary about the hours before Prince died April 21 at 57, told TheWrap on Wednesday that the people he’s spoken to insist that Prince had a will, and that the authorities haven’t done due diligence to locate it.
Halperin, a #1 New York Times best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker, said that there’s speculation that the will could be in Canada. Prince formerly owned a home in Toronto, and according to Halperin, the musician had a relationship with a woman from Montreal with whom he was enamored.
Halperin, the author of “Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price of Fame” and the newly published “Kardashian Dynasty: The Controversial Rise of America’s Royal Family,” among many other works, said he’s been told there are friends and family members of the musician who could have an interest in concealing the will, as they might not have benefited from it.
Tyka Nelson said in a legal filing that Prince died without a will. She was his only full sister, though he also had half-siblings.
Halperin pointed to Prince’s business savvy as further evidence that he would have taken steps to settle his affairs.
“He was one of the shrewdest people in the entertainment industry,” Halperin said.
Prince was found unresponsive in the elevator of his Paisley Park home days after reportedly being treated for an overdose of the opioid painkiller Percocet. Responders were unable to revive him.
The musician reportedly had painkillers in his possession at the time of his death, and Prince staffers reached out to Mill Valley, California addiction specialist Howard Kornfeld the day before Prince’s death to treat the musician.
The results of an April 22 autopsy are still pending.
According to the Minneapolis StarTribune, Judge Kevin Eide put a four-month cap on filing notice of inheritance claims. But Halperin told TheWrap that authorities would be better off taking a year to find the will.