As the battle for Prince’s fortune continues, two more people have been identified as surviving heirs.
11-year-old Victoria Nelson is the granddaughter of Prince’s disputed half brother, Duane Joseph Nelson Jr., according to a letter sent by the lawyer to the judge on the probate case.
That would make her Prince’s grandniece. Her father passed away when she was a baby and her grandfather, Duane, passed away in 2011.
via Page Six:
In his letter, [lawyer] Padden urged the judge to appoint a guardian to help the girl navigate the legal matters, because no one has stepped forward yet to litigate her possible claim on Prince’s multimillion dollar estate.
Padden said that he represented the girl’s mom before the star’s death and felt he had “a moral and ethical obligation” to let the court know about the girl’s existence.”I’m perplexed that nothing has been filed for her yet. In light of the high publicity of this case, it’s strange,” he told the Daily News Thursday.
He said his attempts to reach the girl’s mother directly have failed.
According to the lawyer, Duane also had a daughter named Brianna Nelson, an adult possibly living in Wisconsin.
Both Victoria and Brianna would be Duane’s remaining living heirs, he said. That means if a claim leads the court to declare Duane a deceased half-sibling, his daughters could share his possible cut of Prince’s estate.
Still, it could be an uphill battle. The probate case filed by Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson last month names six living siblings, including Tyka, but does not name Duane or his heirs.
A source previously told The News that while Duane grew up believing he was the son of Prince’s father John Nelson, he found out in his teen years that his biological dad was someone else.
But the lawyer obtained a copy of Duane Nelson’s birth certificate Thursday, and John Nelson is listed as the father, he told The News.
Padden said he represented Duane in several legal matters and doesn’t believe he ever confirmed the identity of his biological father through a DNA test.
“That’s a matter that needs to be addressed by the court and litigated,” Padden told The News. “If John was considered to be his legal father, the blood relation might not even matter. It’s hard to know. There’s been a lot of speculation, but the presumption is that he was the father by the virtue he always accepted this young man as a son.”
Duane and Prince were the same age growing up and were like “two peas in a pod,” Padden said. But after Prince rose to fame, he fired Duane from his security team.
“They had a falling out and were estranged, but that doesn’t change the fact that for 30-plus years, they presented themselves as brothers,” Padden said.
As Padden pointed out in his letter, Tyka referred to Duane as her “brother” in a social media post announcing Duane’s death.
Carver County District Court Judge Kevin Eide previously authorized DNA testing on a sample of Prince’s blood in anticipation of claims involving “parentage issues.”
This is all such a mess.
