Before she was a household name, the actress unknowingly rejected one of music’s most legendary figures — and kept the shoes to prove it.
Long before she became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces, Nia Long attended a party she would never forget — for reasons that had nothing to do with being famous, and everything to do with a pair of Kenneth Cole black snake-embossed shoes.
During a candid conversation on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, the Michael actress revealed that she once brushed off an advance from Prince — not out of indifference, but out of sheer ignorance. She had no idea who was reaching for her hand.
Shoes With a Story
Long told Martinez she still owns the very heels she wore that night — a detail that speaks volumes about how the memory has stayed with her. At the time, she was pre-fame, navigating Hollywood social circles and showing up to parties in what she described as her go-to outfit. When a man took her hand at the gathering, she pulled back and recoiled, uncomfortable with the unexpected gesture.
It was only after she and her friend made it to the car that the full picture came into focus. Her friend casually revealed that the man who had tried to charm her was none other than Prince — the legendary musician behind Purple Rain. Long’s reaction was immediate: frustration at her friend for not saying something sooner.
Had she known, she said, things would have gone very differently. She would have simply turned around and introduced herself. No retreat, no uncomfortable face. Just a hello.
When Prince Came Back Around
The universe, it turns out, gave Long a second chance. After she rose to fame as an actress, she crossed paths with Prince once more. This time, he was warm and gentlemanly — and far less flirtatious. The two ended up spending their entire interaction talking about her hair. He was taken with her haircut and steered the conversation in that direction from the start.
Martinez zeroed in on the shift in tone, noting that the charm offensive that defined their first meeting had clearly softened by the second. Long confirmed it — no arm touches, no hand-grabbing. Just two people chatting about a haircut. The dynamic, she acknowledged, had changed completely once she was no longer an anonymous face at a party.
Martinez put it plainly: at that first party, Long wasn’t Nia Long yet. She was simply a petite, young woman in fake leather pumps and a recycled outfit, and that had been more than enough to catch Prince’s attention. Long laughed at the memory, owning the description without apology.
A Night That Kept on Giving
As if unknowingly turning down Prince wasn’t enough of a story, Long revealed that Denzel Washington had also been in attendance that same evening. She didn’t speak to him, but his presence wasn’t lost on her. The room, in hindsight, was stacked.
That night, she decided, was worth commemorating. She held onto those Kenneth Cole heels as a kind of informal trophy for a once-in-a-lifetime evening — the night she shared space with two of the most iconic names in American entertainment, dressed in her favorite going-out outfit, completely unaware of the magnitude of the room.
Her plan, she joked, was to pass the shoes on to her granddaughter someday — quickly clarifying that she’s done having children, so a daughter is no longer in the picture. The shoes, meanwhile, remain.
Nia Long Keeps It Real, Every Time
The anecdote is classic Long: self-deprecating, sharp, and entirely unfiltered. Whether she’s talking about her pre-fame party outfits or a missed moment with a music legend, she tells the story straight, with the kind of honesty that’s made her such a compelling public figure for decades.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum has always had a gift for recounting her own life without embellishment or myth-making. What she remembers, she says. What she doesn’t, she admits. And in the case of Prince — one of the most magnetic and mythologized entertainers of the 20th century — she simply didn’t know.
The shoes, at least, know the whole story.
Source: Entertainment Weekly