How Kirstie Alley and Prince Became Friends

Kirstie Alley said Prince wasn’t anything like his rumored shy self when they first met.

The Cheers actress, who died in December 2022, recalled her first meeting with the music superstar in her 2012 autobiography The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine al Dente.) “I was sitting all alone in the middle of an enormous arena,” she wrote. “I’d come to participate in the Special Olympics. The rumors were that Prince was shy and never approached people. He walked right up to me. I looked up, and there he was. ‘Hi, I’m Prince,’ as if I wouldn’t recognize him, ‘and this is my father.'”

After Alley introduced herself, she says Prince “dreamily” replied, “I know who you are.” The two struck up a fast friendship and stayed in touch over the years, visiting each other on the set of Cheers, at his Paisley Park studio and at her house in Encino.

The duo collaborated on Prince’s 1992 The Love Symbol Album, with Alley portraying reporter Vanessa Bartholomew in the video for the single “My Name is Prince” and on spoken interludes strewn throughout the album. She also presented Prince with an award for his educational philanthropy at the 1994 VH1 Honors.

“He is the most interesting person I’ve met to date,” Alley wrote in her book. “I needn’t speak of his talent because it’s evident. What you might not know is that he is electric. His being radiates and lights up the room. I mean that literally. He lights up a room like a firefly in a jar. … Prince taught me that I was unique, just by being the only ‘me’ in the universe. I love him.”

Watch Prince’s ‘My Name is Prince’ Video