Prince Estate Battle Rages On With Lawsuit Against Heirs

Over eight years after the death of Prince, and nearly two years after the lengthy legal battle over his estate appeared to come to an end, a lawsuit over control of half of his estate is heading to court.

In January, amid an 18-month litigation-free period for the estate, one-time Prince attorney L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer Jr., who together represented three of the singer’s six sibling heirs, filed a lawsuit against four members of Prince’s family — including half-sister Sharon Nelson, who they previously represented in the estate battle — over control of an LLC that was established in 2022 to handle the 50 percent stake it owned in Prince’s estate.

On Friday, a judge in Delaware — where the McMillan and Spicer lawsuit was filed — refused the heirs’ efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, presaging yet another legal battle over Prince’s estate; Prince died in April 2016 without a will, and his estate was divided up equally among his six siblings and half-siblings, two of whom have died over the course of the seemingly never-ending legal fight.

In the lawsuit, McMillan and Spicer argued that Sharon Nelson attempted to oust the pair from their managerial duties in Prince Legacy LLC, which was formed in 2022 after the IRS came to a $156 million valuation on Prince’e estate, a ruling that was anticipated to finally end the courtroom drama. “It has been a long six years,” McMillan said at the time of the 2022 decision.

However, the lawsuit claims that Sharon Nelson regretted the terms and tried to seize hold of the LCC by amending the agreement to remove McMillan and Spicer as its managers. In Friday’s decision, the judge also sided with the plaintiffs on that allegation, saying Sharon Nelson did not have the authority to amend the LLC without authorization, the Associated Press reports.

The other defendants in the McMillan and Spicer lawsuit include half-sister Norrine Nelson, Prince’s niece Breanna Nelson and his nephew Allen Nelson. The lawsuit also detailed Sharon Nelson’s efforts to assert her authority over Prince’s Paisley Park residence-turned-museum, where she “sought (unsuccessfully) to replace the entire staff of Paisley Park with individuals of her choosing and take charge of Paisley Park.” 

The lawsuit only applies to a roughly 50 percent share in the Prince estate, as three of the heirs sold their stakes to music management group Primary Wave soon after Prince’s death. Primary Wave’s portion of the estate is not involved in the latest round of litigation.