Vanity continued

link to previous thread

OP, you realize the last thread took [bold]six years[/bold] to fill. Did you really see a burning need for another one?

Thank you, OP. Still can’t believe it’s been 2 years already.

they ask to suscribe,.... i think they have more

Did she end up a street prostitute or something?

R4 that's a blurrier portion of the interview that was deleted off youtube a year or so ago. Vanity was promoting her album and Never Too Young To Die

Another show surface

R7 wow! I wonder if anyone ever recorded a solo Vanity performance at a club. We know she did them from time to time as there are photos

R7 even more special is that I see the date is listed 4/8/1983. I checked the 1999 touring dates and it ended 4/10/83. So this was the third to last show. The drama on tour must have been insane by then. Vanity was getting ready to leave and offers were starting to come in but at the same time, Prince had his associates start working on Purple Rain

OP, your post is the first where I’ve ever thought she looked beautiful. The rest of them she’s always wearing too much harsh makeup.

New clip of Brenda Bennett interview-she confirms that Vanity originally sang on "Manic Monday"! So there must be a version in Prince's vault. Also, Prince asked Brenda to do backup vocals on the official Bangles version of the song. Brenda says you can hear her voice when you hear the song. She doesn't like the song though lol Also, Brenda met Susan and Vanity shortly after deciding to join Prince's camp.

lmao so I was looking for any new Vanity clips on youtube and it just so happens some kween just posted a video of all the stuff he bought from Denise (she started selling her stuff in 2014). He didn't buy any of her most expensive pieces but he bought A LOT of her stuff, including stuff she made herself. 1 of the mirrors is decorated with lingerie she used to wear as Vanity lol.

Some of the items can be seen in the video her brother-in-law posted on youtube and others I remember seeing on her facebook page.

Is OP's pic Ashley Judd?

some pics from film cannes festival 1989

She was so beautiful and should have been a bigger star.

we just passed the 30th anniversary of her Playboy spread

2 print interviews I hadn't read before

She was the biggest slut ever in the music and entertainment industry. She could be had for a medium fry and a diet coke.

I liked it when they styled her hair like she was that Barbie beauty shop head toy.

Nicki Minaj was barely even born!

he's so dull Toppop

R22 thanks. I'm amazed at how many clips of her exist that I haven't seen before. I'll never get tired of seeing her beautiful face

FINALLY A NEW VANITY/PRINCE PHOTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we've seen a similar shot before but Vanity is looking down. Here they are in a much more provocative pose. Allen Beaulieu is coming out with a new Prince book later this year and apparently this will be in it.

another pic from the same shoot as above is out! It's slightly different

She was so boring and nuts with all that religious shit. And she married some murderous, douchebag football player in the 90s. Did she get brain damaged from all the drugs? She did ultimately die of liver disfunction, no?

But soooooooo beautiful.

THIRD pic from the new book!

The Manic Monday demo that exists actually has Apollonia singing on it.

Another!

an another

R30 Whatever happened to the trashy blonde girl with the thunder thighs in Vanity 6?

^Brenda Bennett continues the the business mostly doing acoustic sets. Her husband Leroy Bennett did the lighting for Prince’s live shows and also worked with Janet Jackson.

@R26 - Kidney Failure, because of the drugs.

R32 Brenda looks much better as an old lady than she did as a young slut.

Still has those thunder thighs, though.

Brenda and Susan both looked better during the A6 version of the group.

[quote] Brenda and Susan both looked better during the A6 version of the group.

I think it's just that you notice them more. When Vanity was onstage you couldn't see anyone else -- mind-numbing beauty and sex appeal.

Susan looked like a 70s German scat porn star

Susan looks Indian. She actually is, I think.

Susan is from the West Indies. She is mixed

another rare photo. clearly this was pre-fame when she was modeling

Poor Denise - the football player she married turned out to be a multi-murderer. His past caught up to him and he was sentenced to 3 life terms in 2016. I bet she realized early on he was a very bad guy and that is why the marriage lasted only 1 year.

R41 she said he tried killing her too and that he said he wanted to be a cop "so he could kill people". She also said he bought a book about killing people. They met at a charity event and she thought he was a nice guy. Her poor discernment with men was horrible throughout her whole life. He actually divorced her because when they married, she had already become an evangelist and didn't believe in divorce. He cheated on her with someone else at the church at they went to which of course ended up better for her. He probably would have killed her had they stayed together as they fought all the time and he wanted her to go back to being Vanity, not evangelist Denise.

As gorgeous as Vanity was in her Nasty Girl video, I simply cannot take my eyes off of Brenda. She looked like a super sleazy porn film incarnate who could rip your dick off with her vagina, absolutely mesmerizing.

Denise had the type of beauty that could make a gay guy go momentarily straight.

new one

Oh god, why? Why is this thread back?

R45 wow NEVER seen that before!

Go back to your shitty Jeannine Garaflo threads! Asshole!

new live footage! This is from Norfolk, Virginia Before this I had only seen Charlotte, Minneapolis and Detroit.

Never seen the Charlotte, if there is possibility to catch it, feel free to up

R50 just looked. It was either Charlotte or Greensboro. It's no longer on youtube. It was the first live performance of Vanity 6 that I ever saw and it was on there at least 10 years ago. It was only "Nasty Girl" not the full set. It showed a closeup of her doing fellatio on the mic stand lol

I do not think you was meaning this one,.... but if you have opportunity to find it another time let us know.

R52 actually yeah. It was Greenville,S C. That's not the original post though. It was like the first live clip posted on youtube over 10 years ago but was taken down and now it's on again.

so now we have Greenville, Minneapoli,s, Detroit and Norfolk. So awesome that every now and then we get new clips. Just when I think I've seen them all!

She sounds dreadful at r52 but I would have be enthralled if I was there. She was so beautiful and naturally charismatic.

Samuelle... this is your lover calling!

You can easily tell any song she “wrote”, because the lyrics make absolutely zero sense, and she was most likely cracked out of her mind when she wrote it!

R55 she wrote her first album while staying up very late which is when she'd usually get high. If she didn't have to work the following day she'd sometimes stay up all night writing and drawing/painting.

R54 true. She sounded much better at R49

Vanity is NASTY, lol.

More unearthed footage.

Vapidity.

new one

Who the fuck is she?

R61 LOVE it ! that face was perfection

I love Vanity and also love that this thread will never die!!!

the complete show

Here is some fan's digital artwork of her =

I haven't seen this pic before either

it was definitely taken in the early 90s towards the end of her career. She mostly styled her hair straight in the 90s

R66 that's Tim Curry in Rocky Horror.

example of Vanity and Prince sharing clothes

another

I think r66 intended to insult The Beautiful One.

Don't worry, r66, She forgives you.

Years ago I read that she had to have dialysis everyday! What a horrible experience. Drugs sure did a number on her.

Bitch wore GORILLA. Fuck her!

another rare pic!

Experts, at what point was Vanity with Nikki Six from Motley Crew? And is it true Prince and Susan were high school sweethearts?

R75 they started in December 1986 and according to his book (some of which she disputed after having read it) they broke up for the last time in September 1987.

yes Prince and Susan Moonsie were together in high school. He was engaged to her actually but she eventually ended it as he was fucking numerous women who entered his life from Jill Jones to Vanity and the groupies

R59, why is she sporting a bulge?! I was friends with her on FB, and a lifelong Prince fan, but this is news to me if she was trans,....

R77, it does kind of look like a bulge. Imagine the horror that the World's Most Beautiful Pop Star was trans.

well she did Playboy a couple times and showed her bush so you can see the bulge was just the outfit

^^^ Thanks for the reassurance.

I always felt that she should have gotten co-writing credits on Janet Jackson's Nasty Boys.

I wanna hear the last album she recorded that was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I'm sure they would have given Vanity the hits that she deserved. Vanity became born again and decided not to move forward with the release. Why does this kind of material just sit on a shelf somewhere? It's like her Motown stuff, never released on iTunes and hard to find on CD

Outtake for the "he's so dull" cover

Vanity looked good in both the outtake and the one they went with

Interesting how Brenda and Susan changed their poses entirely

hum new ?

Was just thinking of this Vanity yesterday. Search function has been f*cked up so so couldn't find this thread.

R85 yes it's new but it's part of the other The Scene clips that user uploaded previously. He now has the beginning of that interview.

Vanity was so charismatic and she clearly enjoyed her sexy image at that point. It wasn't until the late 80s when she really started hating all the sex stuff.

looking back now it was gross that Prince had Susan lie about her age and pretend to be a naughty 16 year old

another 6 minutes interview

lol she loved to flirt even with an old man like Carson. He must have been impressed with her as Vanity originally appeared on his show 1 night when Joan Rivers was guest hosting (maybe a Friday?). Only a few months later he booked her again but this time on 1 of the main nights when he hosted.

never seen this recently posted pic before. Obviously it was from 1984 or 1985 during her Wild Animal era

Is Vanity the same as Apollonia?

another new pic (to me at least)

[quote] because the woman with the most beautiful face will never be forgotten

Thank you, OP. I am honored.

new Taimak interview. The first few minutes he talks about Vanity

new one

woahhh

the more photos I see of her, the more clear it is to me that La Toya Jackson must have started copying her look in the late 80s. La Toya started wearing those hats, put on a wig with long big curls, even started dressing like her and of course did Playboy like a year later.

newly posted very short interview

painting "Skin on Skin"

1 of her last red carpet appearances. You can see glimpses of her murderous ex husband Anthony Smith standing next to her too

another interview!!

Promoting The Last Dragon

what show did J.J. host? This was before my time

JJ was n MTV vj - Vanity is beautiful in that clip

Even with minimal talent, she had enough that she could have had a much better career if it hadn’t been for the drugs making her lazy and crazy.

Also, she could’ve had any man she wanted yet chose one worthless man after another.

R105 like many women in hollywood, especially young ones, Vanity clearly suffered from low self-esteem. I've watched all her interviews that are currently available on the internet and in many of them she was very self-deprecating. When it came to her beauty she'd say she didn't think she was beautiful (now it's good she wasn't conceited but still) and that she "was just good at using makeup". She even still said that in a Jet magazine interview from about 10 years ago. I think her childhood did a number on her in many ways. Her hatred of her father for what he did to her led her to being with a lot of men who didn't respect her or treat her very well either, Prince included with his whoring ass.

Did her father molest her?

R107 he verbally, physically and sexually abused her. He would go into her room late at night with the lights off and molest her. If she didn't do well in school he'd beat her. and call her stupid

meanwhile her mother jumped from marriage to marriage with several men. The first one she remarried after divorcing from Vanity's father was a white guy and he didn't want her mixed kids living with them so she and her sisters would spend time at her paternal grandparents' farm instead.

So from the abuse to feeling unwanted, her childhood was not a happy one. She was always close with her sisters though which gave her some strength

That's sad.

R108 I always remember her saying her father verbally and physically abused her, but I never once heard her say he sexually abused her. Do you have a source where she says that?

R110 in 1 of her interviews from her last few years she talked about it. I forget which one. She didn't say if he abused her sisters.

Her life didn't start getting better until she was 14 when her father died. In the next few years she'd drop out of high school, compete in the Miss Canada pageant (representing as Miss Niagara Falls) and then left for modeling in Toronto and Montreal. From there she did had an uncredited part in Klondike Fever, then did Tanya's Island and Terror Train before getting signed to a modeling agency in NYC from where she began getting international gigs, especially in Japan. By 1981 she wanted to stop modeling and get more into acting as well as start music. She ended up getting backstage tickets to the AMA awards after the talent agency dismissed her talent but felt bad for her and that's how she met Michael Jackson, Rick James and Prince back-to-back-to-back.

Here William Morris agent, Hal Ray gave her those tickets. Best thing that ever happened to her. She loved Ray and she stayed with him when she hit it big

R112 right

btw for any of you eldergays, if you visited Niagara Falls in the mid 70s and went to see the waterfalls, you might have encountered Vanity. Her first job before she modeled was as the coat checker to the visitors. That would have been between 1974-1976

Keri Hilson dressed as Vanity for Halloween

flip. Obviously not as beautiful but the outfit looked great

Anyone remember this track?

Vanity and Brenda throwing shade/reading before it became a thing

and Prince playing a woman lol

[Quote] throwing shade/reading before it became a thing

I guess you've never heard "Tramp" by Otis & Carla.

OMFG just when I thought I'd seen every talk show appearance!!!!!

I didn't know she appeared on Merv's show a second time!

unfortunately Merv was being a creep and kept cutting her off. I wanted to hear more about her outing the night before. She implies she went to a strip club to prepare for her upcoming role in "52 Pick-Up"

Vanity looking and sounding high responding to Parents Music Resource Center but she looked so beautiful

another rare interview!!

Toronto Rocks 1984

another outtake from the Rolling Stone cover has surfaced

cute to see her hold his thumb

Another example of her batshit crazy lyrics she wrote while coked out of her mind...

If you haven’t seen the “Pretty Mess” video stop whatever the fuck it is that you’re doing and behold the most insane, on-the-nose double entendre filled song ever. The video is a straight up trip

Listening to her “sing” that Pretty Mess song it’s amazing to me that Berry Gordy signed her to Motown records to begin with. She must have fucked him in return for a record deal. She literally squeals her way through the entire song.

She really sucks vocally in that video. She did seem to get better - They must have sent her to a vocal coach. Her next release, "Under the influence" was much better. Id have loved to hear her recording with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Im sure she had a Janet vibe going on.

R122, who wasn't coked up in the 80's?. The Last Dragon is a classic.

ANOTHER rare interview!

she looks just ravishing here. I love how dainty and soft her speaking voice was

part of an article from the 80s about Vanity and her 2 full-blooded sisters who were also in the industry as models and tried acting etc If you zoom in on the page you can read the text

Apollonia is making a fuss over Sheila E. but all she ever be remembered for is being a 'pale' imitation of the late, great Vanity.

R129 What do you mean "making a big fuss?"

For r130:

Berry Gordy signed Vanity because anything or anyone associated with Prince was hot property. It's possible he never met her.

Gordy signed her because she was gorgeous and he was looking for an artist who could carry the Motown brand into film and television.

her deal happened after she had a meeting with Suzanne de Passe at The Ivy restaurant in LA. Suzanne has been involved with scouting, developing and producing a lot of talent over the years.

and it was rumored after Vanity signed to Motown, Gordy bought her a car.

here's Vanity with Gordy and Diana Ross at The Last Dragon premiere in March 1985

another interview! 1985

another!

For some reason, I'm always reminded of Aaliyah when I see her.

and another! this one is quite fascinating. She didn't seem high here. She was much more serious and thoughtful. This was the first time I think she publicly talked about having a drug problem. She told half-truths though. By 1988 she had been on drugs for 6 years, not 3. Also while she tried rehab, she wasn't successful at staying sober. You can kind of see how antsy she is before and after, almost like she was itching to go home and get high again. Additionally, she is lying when she says she was thrilled to be in Action Jackson. In her later years, she said didn't want to do the film because she was sick of getting naked but her manager convinced her one last time and she needed the money.

It's also neat how this clip shows the interview from 2 perspectives. First Vanity, then we see the same interview but the other camera showing the interviewer's face.

Vanity with some gay friends

more

and another

from a Vanity 6 photo shoot!

Another new photo has been found...

She had a dazzling smile...

Vanity with Wendy & Lisa...

Vanity's attitude is what attracted Prince to her =

Vanity's 1978 Pearl Drops toothpaste ad!

stunning and flawless!

Vanity on GMA

too bad it's just a brief clip

I just watched Action Jackson last week and she was by far the best thing in it.

R150 I thought vocally "Undress" and "Faraway Eyes" were her best work. Too bad they didn't become hits.

It’s so sad how her career turned out because of the drugs. She should have had the career that Madonna had (she was doing the raunchy sex image before Madonna and was way better looking) and I believe she would have if it hadn’t been for the damn drugs that had her so scatterbrained and killed her motivation, not to mention had her making terrible decisions. At the very least, this woman could have married a rich man who would have treated her like a queen - she was so beautiful she had her pick and could’ve had anyone. Instead she chose loser after loser. It’s so sad how she ended up dying with no love in her life and spent her last several years completely broke. And she went got off drugs, she simply started another addiction with religion. Definitely had an addictive personality.

Her story is the perfect example of why to never do drugs.

R152 she certainly should have had a bigger career. Every time she performed, the crowds went WILD. Whether it was on Soul Train, American Bandstand, Solid Gold or even just chatting on talk shows, the crowd seemed mesmerized. The drugs were her downfall. Her addiction got so bad that she was suicidal and consequently came to hate everything about her Vanity persona. She used to be very free-thinking and liberal but got radicalized under the misguidance of Roxane Harper who became her pastor and "best friend". Denise was made to feel bad about her "sinful" hollywood days and she got sucked in, making religion her new drug.

After Denise's crazy football player husband cheated on and divorced her, she complained to Roxane about being single and lonely. Roxane said this stupid line "if Jesus wanted you to be married, you'd be married now". Denise took that seriously and decided to be celibate the rest of her life-20 years! How sad is that.

When Denise died, she left control of estate to Roxane, not either of her full sisters even though she was close with them.

Here's the real kicker...Roxane now manages the career of granddaughter, rapper Saweetie. Saweetie is just as raunchy as Vanity ever was but pastor Roxane seems just fine with it. Quite the hypocritical turnaround

R153 I knew about everything else except your last paragraph - Are you serious??!! You have to be kidding me! Wow, that is just pathetic of true. And Vanity was singing nursery rhymes compared to that trash. I guess poor Denise got fooled by people to the very end. Sad.

R154 yes Saweetie is 1 of Roxane Harper's grandchildren. A bunch of people related to the Harpers are in the entertainment and pro sports businesses actually. Gabrielle Union is Roxane's niece.

I haven't checked for a while but at 1 point Roxane was promoting Saweetie on her facebook page.

It's unfortunate that Denise was so extreme. I wish she could have gotten off the drugs without falling into the religious snake pit

R154 here in this clip you can see Saweetie, her aunt Whitney (they are almost the same age lol) and her grandmother/Whitney's mother Roxane Harper. They even mention Saweetie's career a couple times in the clip

as you can see, both Whitney and Saweetie are dressed rather provocatively and Roxane has no problem with it. This is the same woman who initially didn't want Denise in her church because she thought it would make them look bad in the early/mid 90s!

Here's the full GMA clip from R149

what a tough interview! I guess it was just the times, but the interviewer was kind of a judgmental bitch

She was a terrible actress...and lay.

r158 Terrible? Have you seen anything Madonna has been in?

I wish I could at least find a decent copy of Flippin' Out." That song has it all...her vocal performance is bizarre but gripping, and the spoken word ending makes little sense but is unforgettable. It's a shame her body of work is locked up.

What a moronic reply, R159. Vanity was a shitty actress. Nobody here said "Vanity was a terrible actress in comparison to Madonna, who was acting gold!" Madonna is an embarrassingly rotten actress, but that's a separate issue from Vanity being just as bad. Defense replies like yours are just so ignorant.

R161 I actually thought Vanity wasn't to bad in "52 Pick up". Great director, John Frankenheimer and excellent writer. If she had continued down this road, I think she might have had potential. Its hard to judge Vanity when you see her in fluff like "The Last Dragon" She was sexy as fuck in "Action Jackson" when she was singing in the club.

Great thread, thanks for posting. There are lots of things I have not seen before.

She was a nice woman who was very troubled. And in person she was just as beautiful as she appeared in photographs and on TV. I have a friend who met her casually way back during "The Last Dragon" era and he still talks about how lovely she was.

Mechanical Emotion is a particularly terrible song but I do enjoy her over the top orgasmic squealing in the break

R164 thanks for sharing. Would love if you could share more of what your friend said about meeting her.

I think this clip is from the last movie she made in 1995 or so

her version of Amazing Grace...obviously no power to it but it's sweet

a Dutch photographer posted some outtakes from when Vanity 6 did a promo tour in Holland.

He said he also shot with Denise individually later on. I hope he posts those at some point

Eh, Sheena Easton and Susanna Hoffs were much prettier.

R169 = Helen Keller

here's a candid I've never seen before. No clue who the guy is

this is late 70s before she was Vanity when she went as D.D. Winters

if you read the caption it talks about how the director for Tanya's Island found her

never seen this one either

very rare.

Vanity in the middle with other Prince people. The tall guy was Prince's bodyguard

love this glamour shot

very rare shot that her half sister Renay shared and has now been re=posted

famed photographer Erik Heinila took this

as a kid with her 2 full sisters

she's on the left in the first pic and the right in the second pic.

Patricia is the oldest and DeBorah is the youngest. Denise and DeBorah were only 10-11 months apart in age

not sure what show this was but first time I've seen it

no clue who the guys are

don't know what this is from

she looked so beautiful in this interview and I love how soft spoken she was

R156 Poor Denise was so damn stupid and/or the drugs completely fried her brain. Her entire life she let people brainwash her and take advantage of her. She could’ve had a decent career once she got off drugs if she hadn’t let herself get brainwashed into thinking being an entertainer is evil or that having a boyfriend is a sin. Her life ended with her struggling financially and with no romantic love in decades. Sad.

r184. I honestly believe that Vanity was mentally ill. Her evangelicalism really was her most believable performance. She was still on stage, and I think thats what she wanted. Her career was on the way down, she was a guest on low brow shows with puppets, really didn't have a hit record after Vanity 6 and her solo effort "Pretty Mess". Getting clean took her down a rabbit hole of a different type of destruction. I think she had a failed marriage with a NFL football player who was later convicted of murder. Where was her God during these hard times?

ok here's a new one I hadn't heard before. Apollonia is now saying she was offered to sign with Motown and star in "The Last Dragon" before Vanity eventually took that route.

A few years ago Taimak said Gordy let him choose his leading lady and he chose Vanity so that kind of contradicts what Apollonia is saying

brief clip of Vanity 6 interview on Dutch tv

no clue what this is from but rare behind-the-scenes clip

it must have been in 1986/87 when she often wore that top

Denise was the slut of all sluts. She was brazen and troubled. She'd fuck a valet attendant for a better parking spot. She'd leave mid screw if someone more powerful came along. She was obviously very troubled - but seemed to enjoy being a whore for rock stars and football players. She didn't fuck OLD men. My brother knew her very well. She was a sweet, dumb and avaricious chick. She went a long way on no talent. Pretty and exotic looking - she was very short and no more beautiful than Paula Abdul. Vanity was just super slutty and well connected to drugs. Cocaine. The girl was SPUN.

And then the rough hard fall and decline. She fell in love with an abuser that she provoked- she lost her looks and was deeper hooked when nobody invites you anywhere or takes your call anymore....doing drugs day and night and getting beat up in between. Still fucking other guys....

They should tell her story. The real one. Prince is dead now. They can do it. Denise Matthews. A beauty queen from Niagara Falls. She found god in later years. Switching addictions.

Vanity was not liked by many women. She was a slut. Without code or standard.

r189 What else did your brother say about her? Did he know Prince too? Did he think Prince really loved her? Do tell....I'm fascinated by that whole scene....

r189. I believe what you saying, but I don't think Vanity really lost her looks.during this time She was still beautiful when she was on Joan Rivers show and was "Born Again".

I had no idea she was Canadian

R188, she was auditioning for Miami Vice in that clip. She didn’t get the role in that episode, but she would later appear in the episode “By Hooker, By Crook” in which Melanie Griffith was another guest star.

R193 awesome how did you find out she was auditioning for Miami Vice? Do you know which part she initially was up for?

I've seen her appearance on there and wish she had gotten more than 1 episode but they killed her off midway through the episode

[quote] [R193] awesome how did you find out she was auditioning for Miami Vice? Do you know which part she initially was up for?

There’s a longer clip from that audition somewhere online where they mention the character’s name, Angelina. It was the Sons & Lovers episode. I assume one reason she didn’t do the episode was because she was busy filming 52 Pickup.

I love this Playboy interview that she did. She was pretty candid about her feelings for Prince, how she’s aware of what she has and what she lacks and how other women were jealous of her. She was also very lucid here.

Never Too Young to Die plays just about every other day on cable, sometimes twice a day.

From that piece of shit, Nikki Sixx. Warning: It's not pretty.

"But since this is a new diary, let me tell you about Vanity…she used to be a backup singer with Prince, or so she says. We meet for all the wrong reasons and have only one real thing in common–drugs. I mean, she’s a sweet girl, as much as I’m a sweet guy. She has flowing brown hair and chocolate brown eyes and has an ability to look very pretty, but usually, like me, looks like hell. As they say, misfits attract misfits…truer words could not be said.

Vanity came and went during different periods of my addiction. She was a wild black chick who had sung with Prince: she’d also been his lover for a while. At the time I thought of Vanity as a disposable human being, like a used needle. Once its purpose was fulfilled it was ready for the trash, only to be dug up if you were really desperate.

Maybe the manner in which I’d met Vanity should have told me this was to be no normal relationship. Back in ’86 I used to hang out with a guy named Pete: in fact, he was semi-living in my house. Pete was a six-foot-six cross between Keith Richards and Herman Munster and looked like the coolest rock star around, except that he couldn’t play shit. We used to sit in my house watching TV and snorting coke and pointing out girls that we’d like to fuck. Then I’d phone the Mötley office and they’d get us the girls’ numbers so we could call them. It was a sick lil game we played…never really realizing we were playing with people’s lives.

We saw Vanity on MTV, and when Pete said, “Dude, that’s Prince’s old girl,” I said, “Excellent–he’s got a tiny dick.” The office rang Vanity and arranged for us to meet. She opened the door naked, with her eyes going around in her head. Somehow I had a feeling that we might just hit it off.

We became drug buddies: sometimes, you could even just about call us boyfriend and girlfriend. Vanity also taught me how to really freebase: the first time I based was with Tommy when Mötley just started and only a few times after that. So up until then, I’d been mostly snorting or injecting. But as soon as she showed me the real ins and outs of cooking up a good rock…it was love.

...

"Nicole chose the place for me, then we moved in, made it our heroin den, and hardly left for months. Now Nicole has moved out and I’ve got Vanity. I’ve gone from a junkie to a crack head…is that progress?

Vanity showed up unannounced a few days ago. It’s so fucked with her…I don’t see her for weeks, then suddenly she appears and we don’t leave each other’s side for…how long was it this time? Four days? Five? It can’t be healthy…but then I guess me and Vanity have never exactly been healthy.

So she turned up with this huge baggy of coke, just like she always does, and we’ve been living in a blizzard for the last couple of days. But somehow I never go quite as insane when Vanity is with me. Maybe I hate her too much to let her ever see me at my most wasted and vulnerable.

I never shoot dope or go to my closet with Vanity but it still gets fucking crazy. Yesterday we were lying on the bed and I could hear voices…people moving about the house. I started shouting, then fired my .357 through the door at them. Of course there was nobody there. It was the radio, and I shot a hollow point clean through my new speakers I bought off Bob Michaels…fuck.

She just left and as she went she said the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard. She said we were soul mates and asked me to marry her…I don’t know how I kept a straight face, so I said something equally stupid…I said yes. I couldn’t face her going crazy and starting another argument, and what does it matter what I say? My funeral will come before the wedding.

Vanity is asleep in the other room. Laying in bed, her hair is all over the pillow like a seductive Medusa, skin like milk chocolate against the white white sheets and goose down pillows. You’d think she was a gift from the gods but somehow we are like fire and ice, oil and vinegar, and mostly it’s painful. We argue a lot, not all the time, but a lot…let’s just say, everything ends in an argument, usually over some stupid stuff. Somehow I always feel like I’m in high school when we’re fighting, ’cause nothing that we ever fight about is even important. I’m sure she feels the same–in fact, I know she does, ’cause she told me so right before she told me to fuck off and went to bed last night.

Vanity came in just in time for the show last night. The first hour or so it’s nice to see her, then I start to get this uneasy feeling like she’s gonna say something and embarrass me. It’s like the same movie over and over again. I need to stop this. She’s not a badperson, I know she can’t help it…she had a fucked-up childhood like me and it’s her struggle with God and cocaine that is driving her insane. But I need to just end this. We don’t belong together.

I’m gonna hide these diaries ’cause if she found them she would lose what’s left of her mind. Also I’d better hide my lil bindle of Sacha special blend and the packet of fresh rigs he gave me at the show last night. Or better still, take them with me.

I came back to the room and Vanity wasn’t here, so I shot up. I overdid it…fucking OD’d. When Vanity came in I was passed out in the bedroom with a needle laying next to me. When I came to she was just screaming at the top of her lungs. She was freebased out her mind and I’m sure it freaked her out, but she wouldn’t stop screaming. She kept shouting about the Devil. THAT wasn’t much fucking help.

...

"I had Fred calm her down and put her in some other room. She told Fred I was shooting up and I lied and said I was just drunk. He didn’t believe me, but he went along with it. I sorta feel dope sick today. I can’t get hooked on the road. I’m just gonna take some sleeping pills and get through today. I’m outta junk and that’s fine by me.

P.S. Axl called me today and told me Slash is strung out and wants me to help him…talk about bad timing…

I can’t fucking believe it. You will never believe this one. I came home from the store today and walked into the house and Vanity jumped from outta nowhere. She scared the fuck out of me. Her eyes were popping outta her head. She was screaming, If you hate me so much, hit me! She was trying to scratch my eyes and face. I kept backing up until I was in a corner.

As she said for the 100th time, Hit me, hit me, hit me if you hate me, I knocked her out cold. She hit the wood floor with a thump. I dragged her by her hair to the front door, opened it and pulled her onto the front steps. I looked down the driveway and there was a limo parked at the end. The driver got out and said, Is everything OK? I said, Is this trash yours? He said yes and I said, Then get it off my property. I pushed the button to open the gate and kicked her down the front steps… Fucking psycho bitch! I just got off the phone to the cops and told them she broke into my house and was trying to gouge out my eyes so I had to defend myself. They’re on their way over now. I’m gonna file a report and get a restraining order. FUCKING HELL!

I was checking the mail a few hours ago and Vanity pulled up in a limo. The first words out of her mouth were how sorry she was. She looked better than I’ve seen her in a while. I told her to come in. It was nice. I gave her my new number and told her we could be friends. It’s better to be this way than that way.

Vanity showed up at my house after the first Forum show with a baseball of base. I stayed up all night and day until show time the next day…they had to send a car to get me and when I got to the Forum yesterday for our second show I was so frazzled I couldn’t even talk. I hid in the dressing room fearing my heart would explode till it was time to go on. I had to snort about a 1/4 gram to get onstage. I truly thought I was gonna die onstage last night–what is wrong with me? Why can’t I say no to drugs? They haunt me…or hunt me…

P.S. I should be the happiest man in the world. My dreams have come true. I need to quit–this is killing me. Vanity is killing me. Drugs are killing me…or am I already dead? I won’t make another year. I know it."

by far they were 1 of the most unstable and damaged celeb couples ever. I'm actually shocked the tabloids didn't cover them more at the time

Nikki was and still is a piece of shit.

She really had poor taste in men

How do you go from 1 extreme to another? Crack whore to a preacher?

Three days on life support, total kidney failure, temporary blindness and she made a deal with god. She spend the next 22 years in physical pain and daily dialysis. Denise was always talking about god and demons, during all her years of drug abuse too. She was probably bipolar or maybe just on a difficult spiritual journey. But she was just as high strung and wired on jesus as she ever was on crack - so I think mental illness was always present. She had a wit about her sluttiness. She wasn't uncomfortable - when she should have been, because she was far from free. All that nervous laughter. She was famously sweet and stupidly trusting, but trust me in person she would do just about anything to keep attention on her. She was a very damaged person who had to be totally immersed in some "drug" and man. She ended up with Jesus. Two for one.

God, she was beautiful. She can't sing to save her life. But she is way better than Apollonia who's singing is so ear-bleedingly atrocious I'm surprised Prince didn't have her dubbed in Purple Rain. Vanity was charismatic and captivating, she was an okay actress but with her looks and charms could have easily gotten a bigger career. I like some of her music, the issue was she was not given the right songwriters and producers. If Janet, Madonna and Paula could become big stars. There was no reason Vanity couldn't have.

She was definitely mentally ill, especially after getting off the drugs. It really is true drugs fry your brain permanently. Despite her claiming to be so happy living a celibate life alone with her cats for the last 20+ years of his life, I don’t believe it. What kind of life is that? She literally died alone with no family or loved ones around her while she was in the hospital.

She could have had any rich man she wanted in her prime who would have married her and treated her like a queen. Instead she chose one “bad boy” after another who treated her like shit. What a waste. Let this be a lesson about where “bad boys” will get you.

before she became Vanity (when she was D.D. Winters), Denise had several hollywood execs chasing after her and offering to make her a kept woman. She never wanted that life. She wanted to become famous and make her own money

she had low self-esteem though so she went for guys who often treated her like crap. I don't think her relationships with Adam Ant or Billy Idol were chaotic though. Both of them only had nice things to say about her afterwards

[quote] If Janet, Madonna and Paula could become big stars. There was no reason Vanity couldn't have.

She could have, but she couldn't. She went to the Grammys with Rick James and that's the night she met Prince. I think that Prince kind of fucked up her career to be honest. As great a talent as he was - he was a perverse guy. And Vanity didn't play along - for long. Because she was unable to concentrate and focus on a career or a sustainable relationship for long. Prince practically insisted that she be called VAGINA and she refused, again and again. Good for her. What did he really think of her or any woman?

She certainly was his most beautiful lover and creative partner. But to Prince that just made her a dress up DOLL and self aggrandizing creation.

She was talented and savvy and so beautiful -she certainly could have had a great run at a very successful music career in the 80s and early 90s. She was only 23 when she was on the cover of Rolling Stone with Prince. BUT. Even as an actress - her credits are few and far apart. She WAS so messed up on DRUGS and some dude ALL the time. Or throwing them away and then begging to come back. She lived well. Meaning she fucked a lot and took limos and had unlimited drugs and never much paid for anything. She wanted to be an actress and a STAR. But she didn't play the game well. She was controversial from the start. Makes me kind of admire her kamikazee approach to her career. Almost. She almost was cast in the Color Purple. Almost.

I suspect she had a bit more talent than we ever got to see. I love that she answered an interviewer's baiting question: I'm not a great singer but I am getting better. I'm not Barbra Streisand.

She always fell back on her physical charms. With real charm - but it was a bit disturbing. She was a fucking walking disaster. And certainly not always the victim of bad men. She loved them. She left Rick James for Prince. A step up in prestige for sure - but what in the fuck was she doing with Rick James?

She toyed with guys - but she was not really a tease. She fucking delivered. Way too many goodies, way too fast. With way too many guys. She was always proposing marriage. Until the crack ran out.

[quote] ok here's a new one I hadn't heard before. Apollonia is now saying she was offered to sign with Motown and star in "The Last Dragon" before Vanity eventually took that route.

Complete bullsh*t. Vanity was a Motown recording artist, Motown developed "The Last Dragon" specifically FOR Vanity. Apollonia is delusional.

R209 Yes, I can’t stand Apples. You can tell she’s so jealous of V and loves to tell tall tales.

[quote]before she became Vanity (when she was D.D. Winters), Denise had several hollywood execs chasing after her and offering to make her a kept woman. She never wanted that life. She wanted to become famous and make her own money

So a life of drugs and shitty bad boys while making B-movies, bit parts on TV shows, and 2 solo albums that didn’t do much on the charts was better? She played her cards all wrong. I’m quite sure she could have found a nice Hollywood exec who would have wifed her and given her a career that would have let her make her own money (we see this all the time). The “bad boys” did nothing but give her a quick thrill and then used her and left her heartbroken.

It would have been so interesting to see where her career would have gone if it hadn’t been for the drugs and she had chosen better men. No, she wasn’t the most talented but compared to the “talent” we see today she definitely had enough that she could’ve had a better career with a clear head.

One thing I always found sad is that she spent her entire adult life living in modest apartments (with the exception of when she was married to that football player for a year and lived in his house in Playa Del Rey). And I’m not talking NYC apartments (which would have been understandable) but California apartments. How sad to have spent all those years working and didn’t even have a house to show for it in the end. I don’t even want to know how much money she spent altogether on drugs. What a waste.

Here’s a video of one of the apartment complexes she lived in during her Vanity days in Sherman Oaks (called The Grand back then). Units seemed nice enough, but small and it was a rental. She was never a homeowner and always rented.

But you are living in your dream world R211. She was not going to make those choices - she didn't play the cards wrong. She was fucked up. In HER way. She never blamed the men. She was mistreated, but she was not a victim OR a saint. She was a full participant in abusive relationships and her own downfall. Vanity was a mentally ill drug addict who came from a very troubled childhood.

She didn't deserve the illness and downfall. She was unlucky. Many hardcore drug friends survived better than she did. She lived a life of spiritual and physical pain. She claimed to have transcended her body but she didn't lie about her suffering. She gave it to god. No worse than entrusting yourself to Prince or Nikki Sixx.

R213 = delusional stan. She was NOT unlucky - she had the world at her fingertips and threw it all away on drugs that she chose to take. Even in her later years she said it was all her own fault for ruining her body. And I don’t want to hear about her “hardships” growing up. LOTS of people have messed up hard childhoods and never get the chances she got (beauty, offered acting jobs, record deals, etc).

You are the one living in the dreamworld.

while Denise became quite obsessive and delusional about religion in her later years, I did listen to her interviews because once in a while she'd offer a lucid thought about her time in hollywood

1 thing that really stuck with me was her saying she wanted to be famous since she was a child because she thought fame meant you were loved by many people. She didn't feel loved due to her physically and sexually abusive father and often absent/abandoned mother. She also felt out of place in Niagara Falls as a mixed girl in the 1960s/70s. Everyone thought she was insanely beautiful but some of the boys wouldn't date her because she wasn't white. Then she eventually realized that fame is an empty feeling and your fans don't actually know you to love you-they just enjoy the persona you present them with. It can be annoying to have to keep up the persona and you get lost in who you really are

Wow, R214. Turns out you are that NUTS guy who thinks he knows everything. My brother and all too many of his friends fucked Denise many times. She gave it away. To most anyone. She was FUCKED up from the start. Don't blame drugs. Everyone did cocaine. Some free based and shot up.

Denise liked to party and fuck. But your fantasies of her living with a rich sugar daddy only show that you are a very old white man for sure. She didn't like OLD men and she was very much fucked up and mentally ill.

How sad to have to argue with the same old DL LOON on a thread about a pretty much talentless dead long out of the business one hit 80s pop star.

Vanity was pretty enough and fucked anyone for anything. She started in Niagara Falls and fucked her way through the Miss Canada Pageant, The Toronto nightclub scene, "Modelling in Montreal" and then a Pearl Drops Commercial. Her claim to fame.

There is nothing about Denise Matthews that was ever about settling down to being your idea of a trophy wife. You show your small town lack of sex and insight in so many of your posts. Sentimental about all the wrong things.

Denise was a Drug Addict. But long before that took over her life - she was a slut and a party chick with a mental disorder. She was abused her whole life. Her beauty allowed her to rise to the top of the cocaine and abuse pile. She pretty much loved it. Because she was sick. And her switch to evangelical zealotry was just her mental illness flipped. Because her body could take no more. Of the drugs.

You must know a bit about flipping the switch on your mental illness R214.

I am not a stan. I find Vanity pretty disgusting. But I have some pity on her because I know a lot about her beginnings from my older brothers and their friends. Denise Matthews was INFAMOUS wherever she went along her career path. A true SLUT. She'd let a cute guy fuck her in the ass for an order of onion rings. She didn't know how to make money off her body. When she was given the real chance with Prince and Purple Rain.....everyone knows what happened. She moved on. Not because of drugs - because she was bipolar, NUTS and troubled. The real movie of Denise Matthews would be heartbreaking - but not because she was a victim of drugs and bad men.

R214 is one of the sad cases of DL that knows nothing of anyone, but remembers what life was like back in 1985, when he was forty years old.

the OP of this thread is already greyed out - I guess he is also R214? That person who uses CAPS all the time and is always posting about supermodels and minor pop stars of the 1970s & 80s. Strange old man.

to be fair though she didn't do Purple Rain for 2 reasons. The first was because Prince wasn't going to pay her much money at all. She was only offered something paltry like $6000. She got something like $300,000 for The Last Dragon so it was an easy choice. The other reason is she was tired of Prince fucking all these different women and expecting her to just accept it. She wanted to be a star and Prince was purposely stifling her. Sure he was the big creative force behind Purple Rain but she helped write the plot because it was partly based on their relationship.

If she had done Purple Rain, sure she would have gotten a lot of exposure in 1984 and the second Vanity 6 album would have likely done far better than Apollonia 6. Vanity's version of "Sex Shooter" is far superior to Apollonia's. Prince also likely wouldn't have removed hit songs like "Manic Monday" or "Glamorous Life". Just imagine if Vanity had gotten those...Sheila E and The Bangles might not have become famous. Of course Sheila and The Bangles are more talented vocally and musically. Vanity also wouldn't have had time to shoot The Last Dragon because she would have had to go on the Purple Rain tour for far less money. So I don't blame her for leaving Prince. Now maybe she would have gotten other music and acting offers with the success of Purple Rain but we'll never know

She was told by Steven Spielberg she was too pretty to be in "The Color Purple". Of course a role like that would have really helped her acting career. She also auditioned for "The Color of Money" starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Cruise even advocated for her and she stayed over his house but ultimately didn't get the part.

Didn’t know she auditioned for The Color of Money. Ironically, I’ve read that Apollonia was also considered for a part in The Color Purple. My guess isn’t that they were up for the role of Squeak, which ultimately went to Rae Dawn Chong.

I wish she would’ve gone by Prince’s chosen name for her, Vagina.

LOL at gays on here obsessed with a woman that flat out said being gay is a sin in interviews she did in later interviews. Keep on worshiping her!

She reminds me a lot of Marilyn Monroe

Gays clearly don't care about their divas being homophobic or problematic. Donna Summer is still popular despite her born again Christian status. Madonna follows Kabbalah which isn't gay-friendly. Britney's only political views indicated she supported Republicans.

I like how her Canadian accent seems thicker than usual in this interview and she seems a bit flirty with Martha Quinn.

R221 no one here is a fan of when she became an evangelist. If you've read the thread that would be clear

before that however she was very pro-gay. She had a lot of gay friends, went out with them to gay establishments and supported gay charities. She took a sad turn when she turned into a bible thumper nutter for sure

"Filled my eyes with belladonna

And said now lady, forget your honor..."

As my wise mother said: "Not all religious people are crazy - but all crazy people are religious."

Denise was mentally ill.

R226 She did all the writing for her Wild Animal album and the lyrics are so ridiculous and incoherent that I can’t believe Motown even released that nonsense. She truly was high when she wrote that album. They were smart to make her use songwriters for her next album.

I think a moral you could take from Vanity's life story is while beauty is a great blessing and offers a lot of opportunities and forgiveness for screwups. If you don't have a brain, a healthy dose of self-esteem or a strong work ethic, you will still fail.

R228 how Strap on Robby, Baby didn’t get a Grammy nom is beyond me. Best. Lyrics. Ever.

Under The influence was her highest charting solo single and was an improvement vocally and production-wise from the first album’s singles.

I liked her remake of “Shotgun” from the Action Jackson soundtrack.

She was pretty terrible. Her video sexy "faces" were kind of ridiculous.

Adam Ant’s song dedicated to her sounds pretty good.

R232 She’s basically a background vocalist on that song and you can barely hear her.

[quote]I think a moral you could take from Vanity's life story is while beauty is a great blessing and offers a lot of opportunities and forgiveness for screwups. If you don't have a brain, a healthy dose of self-esteem or a strong work ethic, you will still fail.

And don’t do drugs. You forgot that part.

I wonder if it's true that Prince was traumatized by Vanity's death. I mean I don't buy the whole soulmates thing though I think P had a type and Vanity, Apples, Sheila, Mayte, Carmen, Mani and Andy all fit into his aesthetic. He had darker-skinned ladies like Susan, Danaris, Nona and Tamar. I love Prince but I think he was an asshole to Vanity and she was right to dump him even if it cost her a major role. I can see him being deeply sad about her death and regretting how he treated her. He regretted a lot of his behavior when he was young. Similar to Vanity, he became a born-again Christian.

R237 Actually he became a Jehovah’s Witness, but close enough.

Anyone else find it interesting how people who become religious nuts end up dying miserable, lonely deaths? They can keep their “god.”

I think Prince's mom was a JW. I think his dad was Seventh-Day Adventist. A lot of Prince's songs are structured in a gospel call-and-response sound of the Black Protestant tradition. Like most Black Americans, Prince was raised in the church. I figured the death of his son and breakdown of his marriage to Mayte made him return to religion as a coping mechanism. Prince's parents were far from ideal, his dad was physically abusive and even kicked him out as a minor and his mom was mostly absent. That certainly explains why Prince ended up the way he was.

[bold] so her half-sister Ren )Renay) has recently opened a new IG account about Denise and sharing some pics/memories of her. So far most of the pics are ones we've already seen on the internet for a while but some new ones and more importantly, some new tidbits. Check out THIS post. Someone in the comments guessed the singer was from DeBarge and she answered with emojis seemingly confirming it. So imagine Vanity in lingerie whipping either El or James DeBarge lol. If not then I would guess Jermaine or Tito Jackson. Unless there was another famous sibling group in the 80s? [/bold]

thebeautifulvanity Good morning ⭐

I hope everyone's having a beautiful start to their day ❤️

Denise was so happy to have a limo pick me up on this day in Los Angeles. It was a fun time and we did all kinds of crazy things.

Some things I can't even speak about. But I'll tell you this.

I did hear a whipping noise coming from her kitchen the next morning. I snuck down the hallway and peaked in 👀, to my surprise she was in black lingerie with a real, super long whip.

Cracking that whip, over and over and laughing.

Cornered she had a very famous, handsome, soul singer... who sang with his brothers, not Michael who looked quite terrified 🫣 and pleased????

Ohh, the look on her face, like she was having so much fun 🤣💪🏽💃🏽

I could not handle it so quietly went to my room, very confused. She came in awhile later like nothing had happen and said "come on honey, let's get some breakfast"

This did not appear to be a sexual thing, just a fun thing!?! Fun, crazy, times.

#sistersday #whips #mornings

thebeautifulvanity This is Denise's kitchen table in around 1986. Notice anything special? #bettyboop At this time in her life she absolutely adored Betty Boop! ❤️

Most of the dishes on her table are Betty. ❤️

I was staying with her at her apartment on Avenue of the Stars where she lived for around a decade. We drove over an hour one-day to pick up a Betty tea pot. It was very expensive and she made me hold it a certain way all the ride home, worrying that it not get broken. ❤️

Keep in mind she drove Jaguar around 90 miles an hour, weaving around cars.... To say the least at 17 years old this was a very stressful ride, but that's how she rolled 💯

Enjoy, Ren X

thebeautifulvanity Backstage at a Vanity 6, Prince and The Time concert somewhere around 1982-1983.

If you knew V as we all called her during this time (none of the family never called her Vanity, V was the best we could do) you could tell at this stage she was starting to feel the burden of pain in her life.

I was only 15 and did not have a clue to who Prince, Morris, Jimmy or Terry or any other band members were. That's probably why they were comfortable around the little me, but I did know my sister had changed.

My good friend Tatiana Thumbtzen who modeled with her in Japan ( Michael Jackson's video, the way you make me feel) before Denise was labeled Vanity was a real friend to her. She recently told me how devastated she was that she could not be there for her when times started to get dark. It's hard when you're young, Canadian ( a level of innocence) so beautiful, getting famous and only have yes um people around you. 💯

And someone who keeps you sort of locked away on tour and you're not allowed to be as social as you would like to be, that would be healthy for you mentally, tough times.

Yet, she found her way 💎

#denisematthews #vanity6 #prince

thebeautifulvanity Good morning 🌞 it's Sunday and as I am making my bed I thought I would share a pic of Denise's room I took when I stayed with her in her apartment on Avenue of the Stars ⭐. It was so pretty I took a picture of it and I'm so happy I did.

I will say this was a dark time for her and not the easiest visit for me but the dichotomy was that I did have incredible moments as well.

This was the time I realized she was on drugs. She desperately wanted to get clean. She made up a beautiful room for me and asked me to live with her because to quote her, "I was the only one who could see through her stuff and help her stay clean." Honestly, I did not see through anything, I was still a baby and very immature. In fact it was about 4 in the morning when I was awakened by her spray painting an enormous gym she had put in her living room with pastels through a woven table placemat (it looked bad ass) that I realized she was on drugs. Also the smell...😔 Not just the paint.

I believe she felt safer having me there because I was so young, barely 17 maybe, and she had a responsibility to care for me. In some ways, maybe she felt that would help her stay clean. I did not stay, even through the guilt of leaving. I knew I would not be safe, especially after she took all my money I had, said she would give it back and never did.

Hard times lead to more empowered decisions and easier times. We're always going to make mistakes as humans. It's truly not our mishaps that define us, it's what we do after, right?

Being transparent in these posts is not the easiest part of my day. Yet, somehow healing.

Happy Sunday, keep yourself happy, focus on the good and love hard ❤️

#healing #stars #sistersquad

thebeautifulvanity Alligator Woman is the eighth studio album by the band Cameo. Denise was so excited when she booked this.

Released in 1982, I remember when it came out we went to the record store to get it ❤️.

We could not imagine what was to come for our Denise 💎

#cameo #denisematthews #alligator

thebeautifulvanity I showed Denise's kitchen and bedroom and here is her bathroom.

The nice thing about this picture is you can see a piece of her artwork.

She painted many things in her life and this body painting was beautiful 🎨 so was her bathroom which is why I took a picture of it with my disposable Kodak 😂

I honestly have no idea why I kept these pictures all these years. I guess it was to share them one day.

In this bathroom at the age of 16, she dressed me in a corset, did my hair and makeup and took me out for a night in the town.

I'll never forget her telling me when we were both standing there looking in the mirror all done up " okay honey, let's take off a piece of jewelry and a little bit of our makeup". She took a tissue and softly rubbed it over my face removing some of the powder, then proceeded to do the same to her face. We each took off a piece of jewelry as well.

She said a real woman does not need to be outdone by makeup or jewelry, never wear too much! We don't have anything to hide!

We took off in her Jaguar to the comedy club, hung out with Michael J Fox and John Stamos. We hit up about four other places before landing at Peanuts where she told me to stay with her friend the DJ who was super nice and about 5 of her other trans friends who were very loving to me and took off. I ended up not seeing her again till maybe 5 in the morning when she picked me up at one of their houses, looking very out of it. 😫

It was an interesting night to say the least. I had a lot of fun, mixed with fear and confusion. But hey, I was 16 😂

🎨Do you remember peanuts? 🎨Have you been to the comedy club?

Wishing you a beautiful day, Ren

#peanuts #clubbing #makeup

thebeautifulvanity A little follow up to today's post ❤️

#sistersister #corsets #makeuptutorial

thebeautifulvanity Good morning ⭐

If you're following you can see where we're at ❤️ Denise's living room.

We grew up with a piano, all of us on any given day would be playing chopsticks 🥢

It was our go to song liked many families 🎹.

Enjoy and have a beautiful day 🌸

🚫No use please 🚫

#denisematthews #livingrooms #beautiful

thebeautifulvanity Good morning ❤️ Another pic cute pic 🧸 🚫Sharing please

Denise was very much into stuffed animals. She often carried them out with her on daily adventures in her pajamas at this time.

This was her biggest one. I thought she looked so cute, I took a pic of her ❤️

Have a beautiful day!

Ren Xo

#bears #denisematthews #morning