After music icon Prince died unexpectedly in late April, many speculated that people would come out of the woodwork claiming to be his child.
Now, Colorado prison inmate Carlin Q. Williams of Kansas City, Mo., has filed a paternity claim with a Minnesota court against the estate of Prince, the latest claimant in what could grow into a long line of people asserting that they’re entitled to a piece of the musician’s fortune.
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Williams, 39, claims in legal documents that his mother, Marsha Henson, met Prince in the lobby of the Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City. They allegedly drank some wine and then purchased a room for the night. According to the affidavit, the pair had unprotected sex.
Henson says she didn’t have intercourse with anyone else for six weeks before the encounter, and refrained from sex during her entire pregnancy, thereby ensuring that Prince is the only man who could be the father of Williams.
Williams now wants a DNA test to prove his lineage. If the DNA test were to come back positive, he would be Prince’s only living heir (that we know of).
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The judge overseeing the estate case on Friday authorized genetic testing on a sample of Prince’s blood in case it’s necessary to determine who’s entitled to share in his estate, and gave creditors four months to file claims. Already, a Kansas City woman who says she’s Prince’s half-sister has come forward, as well as a California man who contends Prince gave him control over his music catalogue and vault via a verbal agreement in the mid-’90s.
The experience of other celebrity estate cases suggests more claims against Prince’s estate are likely, and they may not all be legitimate. The court overseeing Michael Jackson’s estate case rejected more than $50 million worth of dubious claims.
Court and prison records show Williams is being held at the maximum security federal prison in Florence, Colo., after pleading guilty in 2013 to unlawfully transporting a firearm. He was sentenced to seven years and eight months.
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Henson declined to comment, and Nelson’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It wasn’t immediately clear when the court might rule. No new hearings are scheduled in the estate case.
Prince died April 21 at his home in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen. The cause remains under investigation, though many recent reports speculate that the singer died of an opioid overdose.
With files from The Associated Press