Vanity’s health issues comes as no surprise to her fans.
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They appeared to center around a kidney ailment and a dialysis treatment that may have led to the often deadly condition sclerosis encapsulating peritonitis, also known as abdominal cocoon.
Vanity died this week at a hospital in Fremont, California after years of battling digestive problems, which plagued the star after years of drug abuse.
In 1994, Vanity suffered near-fatal renal failure after overdosing on crack cocaine.
Real name Denise Matthews, Vanity was hand-picked by Prince to front girlband Vanity 6 whom he produced. “I was a crack cocaine addict and didn’t even know how to wake up in the morning without some smoke”, she said in an Associated Press story in 1999.
Matthews’ history with Prince began in the early 1980s when he was looking for backup singers. CNN reports that she is being mourned by celebrities including fellow Prince protege Sheila E, who tweeted: “SADDEN my FRIEND IN CHRIST gone 2day”.
According to the New York Times, Denise Matthews’s sister Renay Matthews confirmed the death. I lied and said it was the image I wanted. Vanity became an actor and had parts in “The Last Dragon”, “Never Too Young To Die“, “Action Jackson” and “Friday The 13th”.
Denise was the lead singer of the 1980’s female trio pop band Vanity 6 from 1981 until it disbanded in 1984. VANITY quit drugs, became a born-again Christian in the mid ’90s, started a ministry, and remained active in her local church up until her death.
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“I don’t listen to my old music of Vanity’s unless I have to hear it playing in a mall or something like that”, she told Rolling Stone. “I sing to Jesus for Jesus now”. However, the woman who Prince essentially picked to be Vanity’s replacement in “Purple Rain”, Apollonia, posted a long note that trumpeted their mutual strict Christian beliefs via Facebook.
