The actress shares a hilarious story about the night she unknowingly rejected a music legend
Nia Long has a pair of shoes she refuses to throw away, and the story behind them is one for the books. The actress recently appeared on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, where she recalled the night she unknowingly brushed off Prince at a party, years before she became famous.
Long still owns the black snake-embossed Kenneth Cole pumps she wore that evening. When Prince reached out and grabbed her hand at the party, she pulled away without hesitation. She simply did not know who he was.
Her friend stayed quiet at the wrong moment
After leaving the venue, Long’s friend finally broke the news in the car: the man who had approached her was Prince. Long made clear she was less than thrilled her friend had waited until they were already gone. Had she known, she said, she would have at least turned around and said hello.
That same night, Denzel Washington was also at the party. Long noticed him across the room but did not speak with him either. She now considers those shoes irreplaceable, describing them as a memento from the night she was in the same room as both Prince and Washington.
Nia Long met Prince years later
Once Long established herself as an actress, she crossed paths with Prince again. She reminded him they had met before. He was warm, she recalled, but the energy was entirely different. Their whole conversation was about her hair. He liked her haircut, and that was that. There was no romantic interest the second time around.
Why Prince approached Nia Long in the first place
Long was straightforward about what she believes drew Prince to her that first night. She was not yet a known actress. He simply saw a young woman at a party and reacted to her presence. She described it with humor, noting he was drawn to her look, not her name, because she did not have one yet.
The shoes are staying
Long said she plans to hold onto the pumps indefinitely. She joked about passing them down to a granddaughter one day, then quickly added she is done having children. The shoes, she made clear, are going nowhere.