Prince would-be heirs object to genetic testing

NEW YORK, USA – Two people who say they are heirs to pop icon Prince have objected to a proposal by his estate to ask for genetic tests.

Prince died on April 21 without a will and with no recognized children, leaving a giant question mark on an estate that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and includes a vast vault of unreleased material.

Bremer Trust, a special administrator assigned to manage Prince’s estate, said last week that it may wish to ask people claiming to be the Purple Rain star’s descendants to undergo and pay for genetic tests.

In a legal filing made public Tuesday, two people who recently came forward as heirs said that they had already offered sufficient proof under law of their relationship to Prince in his home state of Minnesota.

The proposal by Bremer Trust would “grant it complete unfettered discretion to determine when to require parties claiming genetic relationship” to Prince to undergo tests, the filing said.

The objection was filed by Brianna Nelson, who says she is the sole living child of Prince’s late half-brother Duane Nelson, and the guardian of an 11-year-old said to be the daughter of Duane Nelson’s son, who has also died.

Duane Nelson had headed security for Prince but later became estranged. He died in 2011.

Another person who claims to be Prince’s heir is Carlin Williams, a 39-year-old inmate from Kansas City whose mother says she had sex with the rocker in a hotel in 1976.

The court in Carver County, Minnesota, where Prince maintained his Paisley Park estate, has set a June 27 hearing to examine the proposal for genetic testing. – Rappler.com