It's never surprising when a music star dies. They're all damaged goods, psychologically. It's... That's what the industry looks for ` it looks for people who are damaged, cos those are the people who are going to write great songs. In the kingdom of music and pop culture, these two stars were royalty. Prince is the ultimate all-encompassing artist. George Michael, his performances were just so alive, and you were able to connect to them. For over four decades, their music blurred the lines of pop, rock, funk and soul. People wanna categorise George Michael as a pop singer. Although pop was his milieu, he truly was a soulful singer. Prince, he was exploring, you know, breaking boundaries, developing new identities, new sounds, new worlds. This is the story of two iconic artists who changed the course of music, only to die mysteriously just months apart. Something switched in George, and he started to go into a spiral of decline. You never really thought that Prince would ever have this problem. George Michael and Prince were beloved by a world they couldn't face, so they built their own in which to live, create, and die. The road to fame and fortune is paved with influences, good and bad. Find out what leads some stars to fall under the influence. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019. George Michael was born in the North London working class borough East Finchley on June 25th 1963. His father was a Greek Cypriot, moved to England, to London, in 1953, met his mother, Lesley. And they had two little girls, Yioda and Melanie, and then along came George. So he was the beloved only son in the family. George becomes obsessed with music as a child and by age 7 is determined to become a pop singer. His father does not approve of this path. George Michael's own father reportedly would tell him constantly that he wasn't a good singer. In fact, George Michael has said himself that that was a great motivator. You wanna prove your parent wrong. All that inner turmoil, in the end, is what makes an artist's work so great. The family moved to the more affluent town Radlett, where, in secondary school, George Michael meets Andrew Ridgeley. The two friends eventually form the pop duo 'Wham!'. Their infectious singles make them instant UK stars. 'Wham!' broke in the UK by having a fan base of what was called soul boys. So their fan base was not young girls ` they were young guys. A mild sort of homoerotic dimension to it, which was fascinating to people. George Michael was writing, you know, really soulful, funky music that was disguised as pop music. That's what separated them from everybody else. But George has designs for a career beyond 'Wham!'. At the height of their popularity in 1986, he breaks up the group and goes solo. So the whole pop thing, that upbeat, scammy kind of presentation ` George had had enough of that by then. So he really had to break away from 'Wham!' and present himself as a solo artist so that he could make the music he really wanted to do. George Michael is world-famous, immensely rich and critically respected for his songwriting. On the outside, he has it all. But on the inside, he struggles with the fame and his secret. George by then was absolutely aware that he was gay and that it wasn't a phase, it wasn't just a teenage thing ` he was gay; he didn't know, still, how he should best deal with it. On the outside, he's this heterosexual sex symbol. On the inside, he's a gay man. Can you imagine living a life that's inconsistent with who you are? The more successful you become, the less you feel that you deserve it. He was always trying to screw up his his career. George Michael the superstar lived under bright lights, but George Michael the man lived in shadows. What influences was George Michael under that drove him to isolation and an untimely death at age 53? Long before he was George Michael the international pop star, he was the awkward new kid at school. Yeah, George was a podgy little Greek boy, 13, and he was sent to a new school. And the teachers sat him at the back of the class next to Andrew. And where George was the oddball with not much going for him, Andrew was the complete opposite ` wery good-looking, sort of naughty boy hero of the class. George, over the course of a term or two terms, he became, sort of, duplicate Andrew. But it wasn't really him ` you know, it was him faking it to be like Andrew. And against all the odds, these two became best friends and became fixtures at each other's houses. And pretty soon they began experimenting with music. And out of nowhere, it emerged that George was the one with all the cool and the songwriting talent and the musical ability. While George had talent, he lacked confidence. George never, in his mind, left behind that little boy. He would look in the mirror, fabulous and perfect, the way he became, but he would always see that fat little George who didn't fit in. Though George Michael was shy, he was savvy when it came to business. Before we could even talk, George said, 'You have to make us the number one group in the world. 'You've got one year to do it.' And I said, 'Look, George, this is impossible. 'The number-one group in the world has to be the number-one group in America as well, 'and no one has ever broke in America in under two or three years. I've got an idea ` let's make you 'the first Western pop group ever to play in Communist China.' And George said, 'Yeah, I like that. Do that.' The tour in China brought them exactly the kind of headline-news exposure they were hoping for. In one week, 'Wham!' was the biggest group in the US. So, to pull that off was really quite amazing. But with fame came added pressure to be a star. Suddenly, everyone wanted to know who George Michael was. But George wasn't ready to reveal his true self. He was putting himself out there as a massively heterosexual guy, but really concealing the truth about himself, so living a lie. I think George Michael always had inner conflict about his sexuality. Because of that conflict, he really wasn't able to come out to himself till his mid-20s, almost. George Michael may have been suffering from impostor syndrome. He was larger than life as a sex symbol, who seemed to be a straight guy, and all these women were going crazy over him, but deep down inside, his sexuality was such a big secret. George Michael was under the influence of the character George Michael ` the person everyone believed he really was. In 1986 being openly gay and a pop star was uncommon. Combined with the AIDS epidemic at the time, George Michael kept his sexuality hidden. In the '80s, no one came out as gay. It was a long time before you could confidently come out and think you'd keep a career. So, with the persona that George Michael had created, he was afraid of coming out; he was also afraid of being found out. Can you imagine what his public would think? They'd feel that they had been fooled. In 1986, after five years and over 28 million albums sold, 'Wham!' announced they were breaking up. ...with no regrets about splitting up. So we have a huge thank you to everyone ` not only today, but for the last four years. 'Wham!' sort of came to a level where there really was no taking it to a more mature place. We hadn't seen the best yet from George Michael, and the best was about to come. But when he broke up 'Wham!', he didn't become George Michael, his original self; he became George Michael, rock star, which was just as much a false image as he's had with 'Wham!'. So he stepped out of the frying pan into the fire and didn't really solve any problems at all. * Bad influences can come from within. George Michael hits the top of the charts with 'Wham!', but the spotlight forces him to create an alter ego that hides his true self. At the same time, Prince is also curating a mysterious image that will become a shield from the world. But it is this secrecy that will ultimately lead to their undoing ` two stars whose lives mirror one another until the end. In October 1987 George Michael the solo star swaggered into our consciousness. There's those moments on MTV that just change everything ` George Michael in a pair of aviators, cowboy boots, strumming that guitar, telling everyone they need to have faith. Faith was in incredibly important album because it was a turning point, the record that lifted George into the realm of Prince and Michael Jackson. He was suddenly a superstar. It sold 10 million copies in the US alone. (SOUL MUSIC) During the success of his debut solo album, George Michael is still under the influence of the imposter syndrome and he remains in the closet. By the time he's coming off of the Faith tour, during the AIDS crisis, it's dangerous to be gay. And he still hasn't come out to his friends and his family. For anyone, let alone a megastar, that kind of secrecy would just have such a dire effect on you. George Michael had all this adulation. Deep down inside, there must be loneliness and isolation, because the person that people loved wasn't who he really was. In 1991, while on tour in Brazil, George meets a young fashion designer, Anselmo Feleppa, in a hotel lobby in Rio. George has recalled in later years how, upon first sight, he knew they would have something special. This man will become his first real love. George Michael is 27 years old. For any celebrity, it's tough to find true love. But when you're a closeted gay man and you are a sex idol around the world, that relationship for him was so freeing. He's even admitted that the first six months of that relationship were some of the best days of his life. Anselmo is a positive influence in George's life, he helps to draw George out of his shell, but this special relationship turns tragic when, six months in, Anselmo is diagnosed with AIDS. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) Imagine your partner is diagnosed with AIDS ` the fear and the sadness you feel for your partner, and then the fact of, well, what about me? George Michael at that time must have been going through such inner turmoil with the fact that, not only was he going to lose his partner, but also that he himself could succumb to that disease. To put it into perspective, this is probably the worst time in his life, and he has nobody to speak to about this. He's lived this secret, and the only person that he's shared that with, really, is his partner. George Michael is in the first serious relationship of his life, but cannot find the power to come out to his parents. George always said he didn't want to come out, cos he didn't want his mother to know he was gay. His mother had had a brother ` George's uncle ` who was gay and had committed suicide, and I think he was terrified that his mother would feel that the same thing was going to happen to him. So he was desperate not to come out while his mother was alive. That's what he said. In fact, that wasn'ttrue. He was absolutely terrified of what his father would say. Because within that patriarchal Greek Cypriot culture, there is no room for your son to emerge as a homosexual. So George was keeping that secret for the longest time because of his dad. Not to be able to turn to your family and to your friends to be able to talk about that ` I mean, the anxiety and the fear must've been suffocating. In 1993 Anselmo Feleppa dies of an AIDS-related brain hemorrhage. George Michael will be under the influence of this trauma for the rest of his life. No one knew the extent to which George was involved with Anselmo Feleppa. He was the secret lover. So we didn't really know until afterwards, after Anselmo had died, how in love with him George had been and what a crutch he'd become to George. When we lose someone, the bereavement is huge, and the brain experiences this as abandonment. So it goes to that place where it's petrified of being abandoned again. The day after Anselmo passes away, George Michael pens a letter to his family, finally coming out. And one can't help but think that this is a tribute to his lover. When George finally comes out to his family, his parents receive the news with love and support. But George is still not ready to tell the world. Heartbroken, he directs his anger towards Sony Records over the marketing of his image on the last album, Listen Without Prejudice. He claims professional slavery over his contract that requires him to produce music and cede control of the copyright. The same year, on the other side of the pond, Prince is also waging war against his label for the same reasons. George Michael is tangled in a public court battle for the next two years. Even though I both created and paid for my work, I will never own it or have any rights over it. I have no control or say in the way that my work is exploited ` what is effectively professional slavery. Thank you very much for your time and for all the support that I've received since this action began. Thank you. Losing this battle brings George Michael to a new low, and it would forever stain his music career and ultimately contribute to his lifelong depression and isolation. It is at this point that he is pushed over an edge he won't come back from. In 1997 George Michael loses his mother to cancer at age 60. First he loses his lover, then he loses his mother ` talk about abandonment upon abandonment. Something switched in George, and he started to go into a spiral of decline. So he's still massively successful and together and in control ` to the fans, to the outside world ` but within, he's imploding. And that never stopped ` once he was on that downward spiral, that was only gonna end one way. After the double tragedy of losing his lover and his mother, George Michael turns to antidepressants. Eventually, this leads to marijuana, and then rumours of crack cocaine, heroin and GHB, or liquid ecstasy. I was shocked and surprised when I discovered that he was doing drugs so heavily. I always thought he was far too intelligent for that. But, of course, you start the mild stuff, and then you get sucked in. That unbearable pain that's there, that keeps people from forging ahead and falling in love again, makes them hide, and that's when they can escape using drugs. And they start to use drugs instead of relationships, because while relationships are unpredictable, drugs deliver what they promise. So George is two people ` by day, he's the gorgeous George, who is dutiful towards his family and his god-children and pitches up at Christmas and gives money to charity. There was another George Michael, who slipped away from his friends and the people he was comfortable with, to be George Michael all alone, doing whatever he did then. In a spiral of grief and drug abuse, George Michael seeks out anonymous sex. George Michael started cruising in his teens, and he said by the time he came out, he'd been with 500 people. That sounds like it could be an addiction in and of itself. It wasn't widely known that George was a part of that community, but within the music industry, everything was known, but not spoken about. In private, he was able to do things he couldn't do when he was projecting his public image. In 1998 a reckless choice leaves George Michael exposed. * Bad decisions can be influenced by deep pain. After the loss of his lover, his mother and a high-stakes court case, George Michael is on a reckless tear. During these same years, another major artist, Prince, will also face personal pain, loss and a legal battle, and all will have a lasting impact. In April 1998 George Michael is arrested in Beverly Hills for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover cop in a public washroom. This is not how George Michael wants to let the world know he is gay. He willed himself into doing something which would make him come out, but he didn't quite have the courage to do it. It's like you just pushed yourself into coming out. It's like when you want to leave your partner, and you don't have the courage to sit down and say, 'Look, I'd like to leave you' ` you create a row. And this is before social media, but it hits the wire immediately, and it becomes a world headline. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) When you're coming out of the closet, you wanna be in control of that, on your terms. And this wasn't on his terms. In the centre of this scandal, George Michael takes control. He appears on CNN three days later, stating... He makes no apologies for it. But this is the first time that we peer into George Michael, where he really feels like he's taking control of something that, for the most part of his life, he had no control over. For him to come out in the way that he did, with such honesty, I think that empowered a lot of people. It brought him to another level in the media. He was taken a lot more seriously. During this time of personal liberation, George Michael is in a long-term relationship with American Kenny Goss. But in what will be the last decade of his life, George Michael becomes a fixture in the tabloids for behaviour stemming from his addictions. He hasn't done an album every year, like a lot of musicians do. So when there's this downtime in between, journalists are always looking for stories that can lead on to the next story. George Michael was always good for another news story. 2006 ` passes out behind the wheel with cannabis. Crashes car. Falls asleep at the wheel and crashes car. Public-sex allegations. Passes out behind the wheel. 2007 ` two-year driving ban for DUI. Passes out behind the wheel and loses licence. 2008 ` drug-possession arrest. I am glad to put this behind me, and now I'm off to do the biggest show of my life. (CHEERING) Though he would still show immense talent and give fans hope that he was on the up, his downward spiral would inevitably continue, leaving fans wondering what was coming next. Each incident became increasingly awful. And we were watching this, hands over our eyes, thinking, 'What is he doing?' But looking back on it, it seems quite obvious what he was doing ` he had pressed the button. He was going to self-destruct. On a mission to self-destruct, George Michael admits to smoking up to 25 joints a day, combined with harder drugs, including those that enhance sexual pleasure, like liquid G. When you just have a little bit, lots of people say that they kind of feel euphoric and sex is great. You take a little bit more, and you get sleepy, you can go into deep sleep. You take too much, you could go comatose or it can cause death. In 2009 George's 13-year relationship with partner Kenny Goss ends because of these dangerous drug habits. Of course, what massive success brings you is a lot of money. And what the money allows you to do is indulge your wildest side. So your money, your fame, gives you the means by which to destroy yourself. Secrets, sex and scandal seem to follow George Michael everywhere he goes, to the point where he doesn't go anywhere any more. In one of his last interviews, he admits to still not being able to cope with fame and the effects of celebrity. It's a bit heartbreaking that after all of those years, he still couldn't be comfortable as this artist. And because of that, we see him become a recluse. And the slide continues. 2010 ` crashes car into store window, sentenced to eight weeks in prison, banned from driving for five years. 2011 ` hospitalised for pneumonia. 2013 ` airlifted to the hospital for a head injury after falling out of his car on the highway. Change is needed. He realised that he'd been close to death, he'd seen it as being a wake-up call ` he needed to change his lifestyle. George Michael spends time and money to try and change his lifestyle. In 2013 he's treated for emotional anxiety at a $46,000-a-week Australian clinic; then, in 2015, a $130,00-a-week clinic in Switzerland for drug and alcohol addiction and depression. He is supported there by his boyfriend of four years, Australian-born hairdresser and photographer Fadi Fawaz. It's reported that George is there for up to a year. He was trying to get back on track. He was serious about getting better. By 2016, it seems as though George Michael may be on the road to a resurgence. He repeatedly went through these periods, and then reinvented himself. We know that there was an album on its way the next year. We know that there was a documentary in the works. Christmas Day 2016, the shocking news heard around the world ` music superstar George Michael has died. His lifeless body is found at home in bed by boyfriend Fadi Fawaz. The timing couldn't have been more poignant. His famous hit Last Christmas ` you know, this becomes the anthem that will remind us in perpetuity of George Michael. How can George Michael die on Christmas Day? Two and a half months after his death, the coroner concludes that George Michael died of natural causes, stemming from a heart and liver condition. Regardless if it was something that was genetic or something that was because of his lifestyle, the truth is, is we lost a great artist. What does it matter at this point? Behind the hit songs and the sexy image was a lonely, misunderstood man who spent years trying to find himself in the idol. Overtaken by grief, George Michael buried his emotional pain. In hiding his secrets, George isolated himself from getting help for his dangerous habits. Another superstar's life follows the same tragic trajectory as George Michael's. Prince reaches a level of fame in the 1980s rarely seen since and, like George, will isolate himself in a world of his own making. These two men die just eight months apart. Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 7th 1958, a child prodigy from a broken home. Prince is the ultimate all-encompassing artist ` he's a producer, he's a writer, he's a singer, he's a dancer, he sold over a hundred million records ` he is arguably one of the biggest artists of all time. To me, Prince is like Picasso ` he's that great an artist. You can tell it's him in a brushstroke, a sound. His accolades include seven Grammy awards, a Golden Globe, an Oscar and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Prince sold a hundred million records. That's huge. Prince didn't make his way in the world ` he created his own. But the realm of isolation that Prince lived in would also be the one he died in. I've always been a bit suspicious of people who don't leave their home town in their life. Prince never left his home town. And he created his compound, Paisley Park. Paisley Park was the Emerald City. And that Prince was the Wizard of Oz, and this was the centre of his world. It was a functioning world. It wasn't a retreat, a hideaway, Neverland Ranch ` it was a working environment. He died in this place, and this place was not a place to go and die. He should still be there, still making music right now. Prince's sudden death at age 57 of an accidental opioid overdose is as mysterious and riddled with questions as the life he lived. I would suspect that if you're Prince, you don't need to be out hustling on the street for a dealer. I would suspect there's enough people willing to give you what you need or what you think you need or what they think you need. What influences was Prince under that led to such a tragic end? Born in Minneapolis to a jazz-singer mother and a pianist father, Prince's musicality was bestowed upon him at birth. Prince was born to be a superstar and named to be one. Prince Rogers Nelson. It's quite a name, isn't it? It's more of a quite of a name when you take into consideration that it was his father's stage name. And he named Prince after the band, because he wanted him to realise all of the dreams that he had musically. Which is a burden for a child, in a way, unless that child is Prince. In 1968, Prince's once-stable childhood is rocked when his father leaves the family. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) At the age of 10, he lost both his parents, because they separated and subsequently divorced. And from then on, he didn't really know where he lived. He spent some time with the mom, and then would go and live with the dad for a while, and then he'd go back to the mom and the stepfather by this time. Prince's relationship with his father was complex. Prince said in an interview in Rolling Stone in 1985 that his father didn't really know how to say 'I love you.' Prince's father may not have communicated his affections, but what he left behind was instrumental ` a keyboard, that Prince teaches himself to play. A troubled kid who suffered through epilepsy, abandonment, alleged abuse and had no real home, found refuge in music, as he would his entire life. Prince displayed such a phenomenal virtuosity as a musical prodigy that he was fully formed as a musician ` sounding like Hendrix on guitar; sounding like any number of soul singers when he sang. Prince is a multi-instrumentalist by age 12, a prodigy with designs for rock stardom. But with his small stature, he is a target of teasing and bullying in high school. He remained child-size all of his life. This is a man with an identity crisis, who wants really to be this dynamic, sexual being. How are you gonna do that? If you're a rock star, it doesn't matter what size or shape you are ` any woman is gonna want to have sex with you. To compensate for his size, Prince creates his larger-than-life persona. But unlike George Michael, this is not an alter ego ` this is Prince. And in Prince's world, the rain is purple. The King Living Summer Sale is on now, with the timeless Opera from $1,190 and the luxurious Jasper II. Save up to 50% off selected designs at the King Living Summer Sale. Visit King Living today. Influences, good and bad, can start from birth. As a gifted but lost boy from a broken home, Prince is determined to become a star. He signs a record contract at age 19 and is given total creative control. What Prince loves is detail and detail upon detail upon detail. Because that makes the situation perfect for him. Maybe, again, that is also a reference back to the parents' divorce, frankly. He's trying to create a life that is totally perfect, because it won't bring that pain with it. In 1984, Prince releases his most successful and critically applauded project. The breakthrough movie and soundtrack Purple Rain sets a new standard for artistic success. In 1984, he was the only... rock artist to have the number-one film, the number-one album and the number-one single in America. That had never happened before with a rock musician, but Purple Rain cleaned up. 24 weeks at the top slot of the album charts of that year ` there was a lot of competition to have that slot for as long as he did. While performing on the Purple Rain tour, Prince injures himself and is prescribed Percocet to keep things rolling. This marks the beginning of what will become Prince's long-term relationship with pain management drugs and dependency. He would wear those huge heels, and he'd be leaping off, you know, guitar cabinets and amps and landing on the ground and doing the splits ` he was performing the ultimate, kind of, tricks on stage, and I think it damaged him. And there are rumours that he actually had to have hip replacements, and I think it led to the problems he had later. If I'm given Percocet by a physician, that would imply that I'm treating something that every so often starts to act up. Maybe I have an unusual demand on me physically right now, so that's flaring up my pain more than usual. A musical genius under the influence of childhood trauma and now a growing drug addiction, Prince quickly earns a reputation for burning through people. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Prince changes his girlfriends and his bandmates frequently. It's interesting when you think of Prince, and the fact that he's gone through so many different incarnations, so many different groups. He had so much creative energy and wanted to accomplish new things all the time. He'd go in, and he'd write a song, he'd write an album overnight ` that's what Prince was. So I think when he worked with people, he didn't use them ` I think he'd use them up. They'd be spent. There'd be nothing more they could give to what his vision was. Because you're Prince, you have the power to wipe somebody out of your life ` that is something that he could do to them that they could never do to him. Prince also wants to wipe out his recording contract. In 1993 he sues Warner Brothers over artistic and financial control of his music, and like George Michael, who was claiming professional slavery, during this time, Prince starts writing 'slave' on his face and infamously changes his name to a symbol as an effort to divorce himself from his label. As seen here in this interview with Larry King, Prince pauses over his choice of words, knowing how public and confrontational he was about the dispute at the time. As it's been well chronicled, in, uh, deep, uh, dispute with, uh, my record label. Which is Warner Brothers, right? Yeah. Which owns this network, I might add. Oh. They do? (CHUCKLES) They, um... We had some issues, basically about ownership of the music. We got along otherwise; we just, uh, had... came to a head, uh, head to head in those types of.... He is genuinely surprised and caught off guard when told Warner Brothers owns CNN and seems to filter and soften his stance slightly as he trails off. However, the issue of ownership is an obvious thorn in his side. I don't consider it proper that... my creations belong to someone else. I can go up to a little kid on the street and say, 'Do you know that I don't own Purple Rain?' And they're appalled by that. Prince's legal battles are almost as legendary as his music, and it is clear here, six years on from first filing his suit and three years after splitting from Warner Brothers, that it still pains him that he doesn't own his greatest work. When Prince went to war with Warner Brothers, it was a huge mistake. It's a bit like George Michael going to war with Sony ` you're not going to win those battles. These are giant corporations with unlimited amounts of money and unlimited amounts of legal power. Neither artist wins. Two of the biggest pop stars on the planet waged war against their labels at the same time, marking groundbreaking moves for the artist versus the industry, but also marking life-changing strife for each musician. Despite the stress with his business, personally Prince is in love. In 1996, he marries Mayte Garcia, a dancer and the inspiration behind 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World', a song that will be Prince's last top-five hit on the Billboard chart. The couple soon announce they are expecting their first child. Mayte went on to become one of Prince's greatest muses, I suppose ` probably was the love of his life. Prince had wanted a family, and he wanted a baby. October 16th 1996, Mayte gives birth to a son named Amir. He is a month premature. What should be the happiest time in Prince's life becomes the darkest. They had a son together who had Pfeiffer syndrome. When he was born, he only lived for six days. For Prince, this must've been absolutely devastating. Under the influence of this crippling grief, Prince and Mayte appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show a week after their son dies. When she asked about the baby, Prince spoke as though perhaps the baby was still alive. Here we see Mayte force a smile and immediately turn to Prince for the answer as if to fight off tears. What is the status of your baby, your pregnancy, your...? Our family exists. Mm-hm. We're just beginning it. Mm-hm. And, uh,... uh, we got... many kids to have, long way to go. In the years since Prince's passing, she has talked about how hard this moment was. Still in mourning, she did not want to do the interview. But Prince wants to be clear that all is fine in his perfect world. Both dress deliberately in white ` the opposite of mourning. She is instructed to smile and say nothing about the baby, and has no choice but to go along with the scripted answer he gives. It's all good. Never mind what you hear. Prince will not relinquish control, even upon great loss, and when the pain is so obvious, he maintains his image of perfection. Prince even shows Oprah the playroom he made for his child and children to come. And here's my favourite room. The children to be, the children to come? Yes, ma'am. The child in you or just the children? Oh, the children, yeah. That he just spoke of him as if he was still alive, which suggests, really, a mind at the end of its tether. The Oprah interview only served to create more questions about Prince's mental state. Tragedy strikes again the following year, when Mayte suffers a miscarriage. Under the influence of back-to-back loss, Prince and Mayte divorce in the year 2000. I think that it really turned a switch. Prince doesn't have any more children, and his future romantic relationships don't last. One relationship that Prince does manage to create and maintain is with an inner circle of enablers that allegedly feed his drug addiction that is ultimately his undoing. A bad influence can stop a great talent in its tracks. Like George Michael, grief pushes Prince further away from a public life. After the death of his child and the breakup of his marriage, Prince retreats into Paisley Park. Musically, in the last years of his life, Prince is as prolific as ever. He tours constantly and continues to release new music, but he rarely gives interviews, and it seems that no one outside of his inner circle knows what's really going on with Prince. I interviewed Prince once, and he wasn't the easiest of people by any means. (LAUGHS) He was moody, a little bit sulky, a little bit petulant, didn't really want to answer questions. Prince seemed a bit of a spoiled brat, but the kind of spoiled brat that comes from deep damage. I find it hard, really, to judge what's going on with Prince in his later years, because he begins to seem an increasingly distant figure. I remember seeing him live in London, and they had an after-show party. Every other artist would get there, they'd be first at the bar, and they'd have a few drinks, and they would let their hair down. Prince went straight to a makeshift stage and played a four-hour set. He couldn't actually ever be off ` all he could do was to perform, so he was never not being Prince. Years of performing has taken a toll on Prince's body ` he has an addiction to painkillers that began with a prescription to Percocet over 30 years earlier. The thing about Percocet, in particular, is that it wears off quickly. So instead of having a nice, even keel of either pain management or euphoria, you're doing this, which means that if I've developed a dependency on Percocet, I have to kind of keep hitting the lever to get that same thing every few hours. No one is gonna tell a big star they're being an idiot. No one's gonna say that to Prince. Spring 2016, Prince hits the road on what will ultimately be his final run with the Piano and a Microphone tour. Prince had shows scheduled in Atlanta, and they were cancelled at the last minute, uh, due to what they cited as influenza. They thought he had the flu. The show was rescheduled, though, and it was cited as one of the best shows they'd ever seen. April 15th 2016. After the rescheduled show in Atlanta, Prince's private plane makes an emergency landing in Illinois. The initial statement read that Prince was suffering from flu-like symptoms and needed to see a doctor. People were wondering, 'Wait. Hold on. This doesn't seem right. 'Why would you land this plane in Illinois for dehydration and the flu? Just fly back home.' Calls from Chicago Centre air traffic control to Quad City International Airport and to the pilot of Prince's private jet reveal how events unfolded. Chesapeake 9-90, we did call the Quad City Airport. Hopefully they'll have someone standing by for you. Was it a male or female passenger? It's a male passenger. 9-90, was it male or female? I'm sorry ` I missed it. It's a male passenger. It is soon revealed that Prince had overdosed on the painkiller Percocet and had to be given a shot of the drug Narcan. When you've had an opioid overdose, what Narcan does is, if you think about this is your nerve, and this is the opioid that's grabbed hold of your nerve, what Narcan does is kind of come in and bump this off so that the nerve can wake back up. When a private hospital room is unavailable, Prince and his entourage leave, against doctors' orders. Say, I had reason to believe that Prince had a substance use disorder ` I would be very concerned about letting him go unless there was a really robust plan for what he was going to do to get his disorder treated. So the next day, Prince performs at Paisley Park, and he speaks to the fans and says, 'Wait a few days before you waste your prayers.' Which leaves a lot of questions about what was going on in his head and how well he really was. April 20th 2016, staff inside Paisley Park are concerned for Prince's health. A call is made to Dr Howard Kornfeld in California to come to Minnesota for a life-saving mission. Unable to travel, he sends his son, Andrew, who is not a doctor. Andrew Kornfeld brings the drug Suboxone. It is typically used in the context of either treating someone for a substance use disorder involving opioids, or to help somebody taper off pain medication. I can tell you that if a physician friend in a different state asked me to bring Suboxone by plane to a different state to provide to their patient when they didn't know how to use the medication, I would run like crazy. However, I can't speak to how an incredibly... private, secretive celebrity might choose to manage their controlled substance. But the efforts are too little too late. The next morning, on April 21st 2016, Andrew Kornfeld and Paisley Park staff find Prince collapsed in an elevator at the compound. Unresponsive, Prince is pronounced dead. When I got the alert popped up in my phone that Prince had died, I really just put my phone away and turned it off, cos I didn't need... I needed that not to be true for at least the rest of that day. When I heard Prince had died, it was shock. It was four-letter words. It was hard to believe. What was the thing that sustained Prince? Was it his own self-belief? Or was it something more sinister? Was it narcotics? And I think we'd have to draw the conclusion that, yet again, the drugs got him. And he managed to keep that under wraps for the longest time. The official cause of Prince's death is an accidental fentanyl overdose. Fentanyl is significantly more powerful than heroin, and what we're seeing now is that it's in a lot more pure form on the street, and so it can be very unpredictable. Investigators find different painkillers hidden throughout Paisley Park, in vitamin and aspirin bottles. It is possible that Prince did not realise what pill he was popping. Where Prince got a fentanyl pill is obviously the, you know, $64,000 question. I would conjecture that it was the same kind of situation where Michael Jackson got Propofol, or where a celebrity with a lot of resources and a lot of need for privacy gets anything. An investigation is opened into Prince's suspicious death, focusing on his doctors and longtime friend Kirk Johnson. None of the prescriptions found in Prince's home were actually prescribed to him. Dr Michael Schulenberg admits to authorities that he wrote a prescription for Oxycodone in the name of Kirk Johnson to give to Prince in private. Having been in this industry for a long time, you realise that so many of your favourite stars can often be surrounded by people who will say yes when they should maybe say no. So much has come out about Prince since he passed away ` certainly, the pain. Nobody really understood what he was suffering through. (POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC) An artist for all time, Prince was under the influence of deep trauma that started in his childhood and resurfaced later with the death of his only child. Ultimately, a decades-long drug addiction, allegedly enabled by those in his inner circle, contributed to his early death. George Michael and Prince were superstars beloved the world over. But they each retreated into a lonely world away from the love of their fans. While their music will live on, George Michael and Prince died under the influence.