Long before The Golden BachelorLeslie Fhima was looking for love on TV, says she had a teenage love affair with Prince.
After first revealing her relationship with the “Purple Rain” singer on the season premiere of the ABC dating show in October, Fhima, 64, further described how she met Prince on the show’s latest episode Bachelor Happy Hour podcast.
“I was 18 and my cousin — his name is Bobby Z, he was Prince’s drummer — but before The Revolution was a band, he was a friend of Prince’s,” she told hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt about his relationship with Prince. “They were just really good friends, like Bobby took him to get his driver’s license and all that and more, but my brother was his valet for 12 years and my sister did his makeup.”
Leslie Fhima and Gerry Turner in ‘The Golden Bachelor’.
John Fleenor/ABC
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“So Bobby met us and I think we’re the same age and we were 18 and he was amazing…” she continued. “I would go to his house and he would play the guitar and sing for me. And, you know, he was an amazing person and people think he’s so quiet, but he’s hysterical. He was very funny. Again, the humor I love.”
Fhim, who was runner-up in Gerry Turner’s first season The Golden Bachelorshe also claimed that she inspired Prince to write his song “Sexy Dancer”, which was released in 1979.
“I was dancing at a fashion show and Bobby brought him to the fashion show, and you know, he’s like hiding behind a pole, and I came down dancing,” she recalled. “And after he says, ‘You’re a sexy dancer.’ I will write a song about you. I said, ‘Okay,’ anyway, that song came out a little bit later.”
After the song was released, Fhima said she graduated from high school and became a professional ice skater in the Ice Follies as “Prince started becoming Prince.”
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The fitness instructor reflected on her experience while the musician was on tour, claiming: “Every time he was, you know, in town – especially like in LA at the Forum – he’d drive a limo up that ramp, and all the girls would see me getting into the limo, and then he would write me these amazing letters during my time at the Ice Follies.”
She remembered sharing the letters — which she called “a little graphic” — with her friends at the Ice Follies.
However, she changed her mind about her relationship with Prince during a break from the ice tour, sharing: “I came home for the Christmas holidays. And again there is no cell phone and we had a plan to meet at a certain place at midnight.”
“And then I was at my cousin’s house at a party which was very close to this location and I kept looking at the clock and then I had an hour, it’s 11 o’clock. I have an hour, it takes me five minutes to get there,” she recalled.
“And then I see Brad, who was my first husband, across the room,” she continued. “I knew him before, but I see him and he’s so handsome. And he has these sleepy eyes and we start talking and I look at the clock. Now it’s 11:15, 11:30, 11:40, 11:45.”
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Leslie Fhima and Gerry Turner in ‘The Golden Bachelor’.
John Fleenor/Disney
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“I had to make a decision about the time of the game. Do I stay? This could be my husband, really. Or I go to Prince who probably [is] won’t he be my husband one day? I mean, I had to make that decision. So 11:50, whatever. And I just decided to stay with Brad, because I looked at him and I was like…” she said.
Amabile interjected, “You could be the one.”
“Yes, I am,” she replied. “I mean, I adored Prince. But at the end of the day, you know, I knew it. I mean, I’m only 18… I have to go back to the show, and after that I did another show in Europe.”
“So I knew Brad was going to be [the right choice], he was in love with me three years before that,” she added. “So, you know, I made a decision and we have this amazing son, Zach. And like I said, we’re friends.”
Fhima was divorced twice before appearing on The Golden Bachelor and competes for Turner’s heart. Although she made it to the fantasy suite and the final episode, Turner eventually ended things with Fhima, choosing Theresa Nist to propose to her in the finale.
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Bachelor Happy Hour is available on major podcast platforms.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education