Prince's ex-girlfriends have accused him of physical and emotional abuse in an nine-hour, bombshell documentary, per The New York Times Magazine, which reports to have seen the unreleased film.
The Ezra Edelman ("O.J.: Made in America") film, which has been in development with Netflix for nearly five years, includes interviews with dozens of Prince's former business partners, lovers, friends and associates. The documentary has been the subject of much back-and-forth between the film's creators and Prince's estate.
In between musings on his artistry are details of his personal flaws, allegations of physical and emotional abuse, accounts of his own abusive childhood, his abandonment of his young wife Mayte Garcia after the couple lost their child, the Times reports.
USA TODAY has reached out to Prince's estate, Netflix and Edelman's reps for comment.
The film includes an interview with multiple ex-lovers of Prince, including Jill Jones, who recalled a night in 1984, when she and a friend visited the singer in a hotel.
Jones claimed after the Grammy winner kissed her friend, she slapped him. She recalled him saying, "Bitch, this ain't no (expletive) movie." The two began to fight before Jones says the singer started to repeatedly punch her in the face. She didn't press charges after his manager told her it would end his career. She loved and still wanted to be with him, so she stuck around for years after, she reportedly said in the documentary.
Susannah Melvoin, the identical twin of The Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, was also involved with Prince. She recalled after the couple moved in together, he inspected her phone calls and was dissuaded from leaving their home.
The film also reportedly includes an interview with Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia. The documentary follows their meeting with she was 16 and he was 35, after he saw videos of her belly dancing. A letter Prince once wrote to her, shown in the documentary, said he worshipped her and her virginity. Garcia recalls them beginning an intimate relationship when she was 19. The couple wed when she was 22, and on their wedding night, she was gifted two songs: "Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife" and "Let's Have a Baby."
Garcia went on to become pregnant, and their son was born eight months into the pregnancy. The couple discovered the boy had Pfeiffer syndrome Type 2, leaving him without the ability to breathe on his own, and they made the decision to take him off of a respirator. Quickly after, Prince was on a plane for a show in Miami, per the documentary.
Garcia recalls an incident a week after the death of their child when Prince walked in on her crying on the floor to announce Oprah would be interviewing the couple at their home that morning. Vault footage reportedly is shown in the documentary in which Prince remarks to Garcia, wearing a white miniskirt and jacket: "We can see up your dress."
Garcia recalls Prince telling her not to announce the death of their child during the interview. The marriage was soon over, but in the film, Garcia does not criticize him, the Times reports.
In July, Variety reported the massive documentary was "dead in the water," with Prince's estate claiming the film included multiple "factual inaccuracies."
New York Times Magazine deputy editor Sasha Weissis is said to have seen the unreleased documentary last year. On Sunday, the outlet released its article, which includes more than 20 Times Magazine interviews regarding the film.
The late singer died in 2016 at his Minneapolis compound at age 57. Public data released six weeks after his death showed he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose.
This story is developing.