We haven't heard the last of Brianna Nelson, who was knocked off the list of Prince heirs.
Nelson, who contacted me to set a few matters straight, is the daughter of the late Duane Nelson, a former Paisley Park security chief long considered Prince's brother, although they were not related by blood. "I didn't find out that John Nelson wasn't my grandfather until my dad passed away," said Brianna, a memory care worker who lives in Milwaukee. We had a conference call Monday that included Chicago-based attorney Joanna Sunderland, who is helping her decide what's next.
"You can be a family and not related by blood, C.J.," Sunderland said.
"We had clear and convincing evidence to present to the judge [and] he just said, No, we don't want to hear your evidence," said Sunderland. "Duane's birth certificate had John Nelson as his father. We have Duane's death certificate, John Nelson is his father. He is buried in the cemetery feet away from John Nelson. Bremer Trust, the special administrator for Prince's estate, out of the clear blue, hands us a file with wills that John Nelson had drafted that not only mention Duane as his son but give his birth date and address. And when it says list your children, he, [John] lists Duane as one of his children.
"It's almost like Mr. Nelson was reaching out of the grave to help us."
According to Sunderland, Duane was born after John Nelson and his first wife, Vivian Nelson, divorced and he was already married to Prince's and Tyka's mother, Mattie Nelson.
"[John] accepted Duane as his child publicly," said Sunderland. "John sent him to college, came to watch him play basketball, was at his graduation. Duane was a high school All-American and named to the Musselman All-Star basketball team; went to UW-Milwaukee on a basketball scholarship.
"It's very convenient when there is money involved, all of a sudden everybody wants to throw Duane away. And Brianna, I don't want to speak disrespectfully of your uncle, but we know that Prince himself when he was done with a person for whatever reason, he was done. There is no dispute that they [Prince and Duane] had a falling out. They had a falling out, and Duane was in the throes of mental illness and he wasn't being properly treated or cared for; Duane didn't have the mental wherewithal to fight his entire family, all the time. Duane was barely holding on at the end."
