Inside Carmen Electra and Prince's 'Fast and Furious' Romance: Everything to Know About Their Relationship

Carmen Electra has never been a stranger to headline-grabbing romances — including a past connection with Prince.

After moving to Minneapolis in 1991, the "I Like It Loud" songstress was introduced to Prince through Robin Power, who had discovered her at a Los Angeles nightclub while casting a girl group backed by the "Purple Rain" hitmaker.

Although Prince invited her to perform vocal exercises, he slipped her a note asking if she would like to watch movies together.

"I wanted to be in this band, but I didn't want to have an intimate relationship," she told Vanity Fair in September 2023. "I didn't feel that for him."

Electra missed out on the group, but the disappointment proved short-lived as she received a phone call that would change the course of her career.

"I received a call from Prince saying, 'I think you should be your own artist and not back up anyone else. I'm going to write you a song and if you like it, you can record it,'" she told OWN.

She added, "The name of the song was 'Carmen on Top.' My name is Tara, so I was confused. I loved the song. I loved it, but he said, 'You're not a Tara. You're not Tara. You're Carmen."

According to Electra, Prince played a pivotal role in shaping her early career, disclosing he "controlled everything," including how she dressed as well as her music and hairstyles.

"He was genius at all that," she gushed about Prince in a separate interview with E! News.

In January 2024, the "Go Go Dancer" singer filed legal paperwork to change her name from "Tara Leigh Patrick" to "Carmen Electra." The request was granted by a Los Angeles Superior Court the following month.

"At first I thought it sounded kinda like a superhero type of name, which actually it is," she said of the moniker in a 2014 interview with "The Yo Show."

Although she was initially hesitant, it "just sorta grew on [her] and that's it."

Electra and Prince's growing connection ultimately led to a romance.

"When I was with Prince, he used to want me to sleep with a full face of makeup on and my lashes," she revealed to E! News while at the 33rd Annual Race to Erase MS Gala on June 5. "Prince liked that and I was down for it and I still did that for a long time in my life."

However, the pair ultimately split after a brief romance.

"I told him I wanted to live in L.A. and he spent as much time here as he did in Minnesota. He wanted me to move back to Minnesota and I said no. I broke it off with him and stayed in L.A.," she shared. "I gave up everything with him to live here and make my own career. It was a hard time. I ended up calling him and he hired me to dance at his club in L.A. I made $90 a week. I wasn't his girlfriend anymore, but I was one of his girls. This was after we split."

The Baywatch star also claimed Prince's brother told her the "When Doves Cry" hitmaker considered proposing to her.

"I was so excited and in love," she said in a 2016 interview. "One day, Prince asked me if I wanted to work or be a housewife. I said I want to work. I was only 19 or 20 and he ended up never asking me to marry him. But I was with him every day. I needed to leave and be my own person."

Prince died from an accidental overdose of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl on April 21, 2016. He was 57 when he passed away.

After the news surfaced, Electra expressed she was "in shock" and "sad."

"He always talked about life, not death. He was excited about music," she told E! News. "But, back then he talked a lot about God, but not about religion. Prince was like a god. Maybe that's why I'm so shocked he's passed away."

Despite everything that transpired between them, Electra credited Prince for making her who she is today.

She continued, "He believed in me. He picked a select few to believe in and taught us everything. I think of Prince every day."

Marking the 10th anniversary of Prince's death in April, the "Fantasia Erotica" singer shared a heartfelt tribute on Instagram alongside the caption, "At first we were friends but fell in love fast and furious 💜, u were my everything I mean everything but u hurt me deeply, and I hurt u back as I was too young to understand how to communicate my feelings at the time. But that's all behind us now and I still love u! Some go to soon, just like u, but I will always hold a place in my heart for u, as if I didn't leave u, who knows what the future would've held for us, who knows! 🕊️ I love u, we all love u, peace and be wild."

Electra further discussed her past romance with Prince — particularly one of the last conversations of the former couple — during an appearance on the "Legally Golf" podcast on May 26.

"A lot of time went by and things had happened with us that, you know, weren't great. And I think it was maybe the second-to-last time I was actually alone with him, and we were talking, he said to me, 'You're going to be a Marilyn Monroe type,'" she reminisced.

The "Lately" singer said she found it baffling since she had no aspirations of becoming an actress and had never posed for Playboy. But looking back, she realized there were astonishing parallels between her and Monroe's careers.

"Honestly, I feel like he was almost psychic in a way. He just knew things," she said of Prince.

Elsewhere in the podcast appearance, Electra confirmed she broke up with Prince after discovering "he was dating a lot of other girls."