YOU ’ REAL LIAR
Kim Calls Out Taylor: Don’t cross Kim! The reality star takes on in defense of
Kim Kardashian was on the warpath. In a GQ magazine interview released on June 16, she boldly reignited the feud between husband Kanye West and Taylor Swift that exploded in February when Kanye released his song “Famous” — in which he raps of Taylor, “I made that bitch famous.” “She totally approved that,” Kim told the magazine, insisting that Taylor, whose camp has repeatedly denied Kanye’s claims that she gave him her blessing, wasn’t being truthful. Kim even revealed that Kanye can prove it, because the conversation was recorded. “I swear, my husband gets so much s--- for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol.”
The drama quickly escalated. In the same article in which Kim, 35, publicly calling Taylor, 26, a liar and accusing the singer of wanting to “play
the victim,” Taylor’s rep hit back with a statement throwing shade at Kim. “Taylor … recognizes the pressure Kim must be under and that she is only repeating what she has been told by Kanye,” the statement began. That only made Kim angrier, In Touch has learned, and now she wishes her husband, 39, could release the recording. “Yes, the tape exists, because Kanye tapes everything he does so that he can go back and look at the ‘creative process’ after,” says a Kim source, adding that Kanye was being videotaped while on speakerphone with Taylor. “She’s sick of everyone thinking that Taylor is holierthan-thou.”
Taylor has already taken legal action. On June 19, Britain’s The Sun newspaper claimed to have seen the legal letter in which the “Bad Blood” singer’s attorneys ordered Kanye to destroy the footage. “The more she keeps coming after him, the more it looks like she has something to hide, and she does,” says the Kim source. “In fact, Taylor spent the whole conversation with Kanye kissing his ass, telling him what a genius he is.”
Taylor continues to deny it. “She’s sticking to her story,” says a Taylor insider. “She knows Kanye’s team will have a huge lawsuit on their hands if they release a recording of her, because it’s illegal to record someone in California without their knowledge and consent. Taylor hates to lose, so she’s not budging.” But the Kim source says that tactic won’t work: “Taylor always sends her army of lawyers to scare people away, but she should know that the one person that won’t scare is Kanye.”
For now, they’ll both take their revenge in public. “Taylor’s already been inspired to write some harsh lyrics [about Kim]. Kim messed with the wrong woman,” says the Taylor insider. And Kanye? “He’s planning an epic takedown of Taylor on his upcoming tour. He’s going to slam her nightly,” says another source. “The plan is for Kanye to play the infamous clip of Taylor accepting her VMA and him storming the stage, and Kim will be featured in the video somehow. It will mock Taylor’s good-girl image. It’s going to be absolutely merciless.” ◼
“The pain of life had become too much for him,” says a close friend of Prince’s. “There was the crippling hip and joint pain, and the shame of his drug addiction that he hid from all but a few close friends and physicians.”
His body lay there, lifeless, crumpled on the floor of the purple-carpeted elevator inside Paisley Park. All alone and clad in black from his cap down to his socks, Prince’s 5-foot-3, 112-pound body had been inside his 65,000-squarefoot Minnesota home for at least six hours before he was ultimately found by two staffers at 9:40 a.m. on April 21. Six weeks later, an official autopsy report revealed that the music legend had died from a self-administered overdose of the extremely potent opioid fentanyl. The autopsy report ruled his death was accidental.
But there’s much more to the tragic story. In Touch has exclusively learned the 57-year-old music genius knew the end was near — and even left a suicide note. “It was scrawled in big letters on a page ripped from a notebook,” a close friend tells In Touch. “It was chilling and read simply: ‘ Need something to make the pain stop, even if it means ending everything somehow. It’s time to go, I didn’t mean to leave so soon … I didn’t mean to leave now. Love, Love, Love.’” It was Prince’s final goodbye. “It was almost lyrical,” adds his friend. “He knew he would finally do himself in with a deadly dose of opiates.”
What’s more, the note is not in the hands of investigators. It was discovered by someone who went through his things before Minnesota’s Carver County Sheriff ’s Office could search the scene. “Prince’s fi nal farewell was found by this person among the clutter of Prince’s notebooks and papers,” explains his friend, adding that the person kept it from going public. “It was what the deeply private star would have wanted. He wanted to be remembered as one of, if not the greatest, pop stars of all time, someone who spread love and joy through his music — not someone who’d done this to himself.”
Prince knew he was going to die soon. “In the days leading up to his death, he was trying desperately to cover up a grand lie as his drug addiction spiraled, but he also knew he’d cause his own death with an overdose,” says his friend. “It was a heartbreaking final bow, but the fact is, he was so sick — and sick and tired of living. As far as I’m concerned, Prince didn’t die of an accidental overdose.”
His internal struggle was heartbreaking. “The deeper his addiction got, the darker his thoughts became,” says an insider. “His charmed life had become a nightmare. He couldn’t help himself.” In fact, six days before his death, Prince’s private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois, where he was reportedly given a “save shot” while in the throes of a Percocet overdose. “He still didn’t
As In Touch first reported, dozens of prescription pill bottles were seized by authorities at Paisley Park after Prince’s body was found. He was addicted to Percocet and fentanyl, among other drugs.
stop doing drugs,” says a source, “even after he OD’D.” After that near-death experience, Prince returned to Paisley Park, where he wrote the suicide note and, according to his brother-in-law Maurice Phillips, stayed up for six days straight. “He wanted to stop doing drugs,” says his friend, “but just couldn’t.”
Fentanyl is the substance that ultimately killed Prince, but it was far from the only one he was abusing. Toward the end of his life, the prolific songwriter was taking opiates including Percocet, Vicodin and Norco — “up to 80 pills a day,” says a second source — after he developed addiction issues while trying to cope with intense hip and joint pain following years of energetic performances in high-heeled shoes. (The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice are currently helping local law enforcement investigate how Prince obtained the painkillers that ended his life.) He was also using cocaine and heroin for years as he attempted to “balance his high,” adds the second source.
He was writing down his darkest thoughts for years. Before his suicide note, death wasn’t far from Prince’s mind. A musician pal who worked with The Purple One in recent years recalls seeing a certain set of lyrics scribbled on some of Prince’s music sheets that now seem eerily prophetic. “It had words written all over the margins,” says the musician. “I remember phrases like, ‘Closing down shop … Might skip the wake and go straight for the cake … It will be dark for a while … But then the pain will be gone.’” That Prince was responsible for his own death weighs heavily on his musician friend. “The idea of Prince taking his own life because he was in so much pain may not have been
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something that he decided in his final days or final hours. I think he’d been considering it, knowing it would happen, for a long time.”
Death even became a big part of his music. “He had alluded to the end in many of his song lyrics. He kept notebooks and would write and write and write,” explains the first friend, noting that Prince referenced his death in the 2014 song “Way Back Home.” The lyrics include: “I never wanted a typical life / scripted role, huh trophy wife / All I ever wanted, to be left alone / See my bed’s made up at night / ’Cause in my dreams I roam / Just trying to find, trying to find / My way back, back home.” “There were torn-out pages of lyrics and ideas all over the Paisley Park studio,” adds his friend, “and among the clutter were multiple notes about dying, because he had come close to death many times before.”
He contemplated it endlessly, until that fateful night when he took his final dose of fentanyl after writing his suicide note. “I’ll never forget what he wrote,” says the friend. “I can’t get it out of my mind. ‘ It’s time to go. I didn’t mean to leave so soon.’” ◼
‘‘ In his last days, much of Prince’s time was spent alone. He was a prisoner to his addiction”
— A CLOSE FRIEND