Prince protege Denise 'Vanity' Matthews dies at age 57

Denise Matthews, the former Prince protege known as Vanity, who later became a Christian evangelist minister who condemned her pop/rock lifestyle, has died. She was 57.

She died at the Washington Hospital Health Care System in Fremont, Calif., according hospital spokeswoman Gisela Hernandez, who confirmed her death to CNN.

Sheila E, another musician associated with Prince who later turned to evangelism, also confirmed her death in a tweet.

The cause of death was not disclosed but Matthews had battled multiple health problems for decades, including kidney disease.

The New York Times quoted Matthews’ sister, Renay Matthews, 47, who said her sister had checked into a hospital on Saturday night after struggling for years with health issues related to her kidneys.

According to the fundraising page she had on GoFundMe, which appeared to be written in the Fremont hospital four months ago, she had been on dialysis for years but had recently been diagnosed with an often deadly condition called sclerosis encapsulating peritonitis.

Canadian-born, Matthews started out as a model and actress in the 1980s, when she appeared in films such as The Last Dragon and 52 Pick-Up, according to IMDb.

Then she turned to music, heading up an all female band, Vanity 6, which had a close relationship with Prince, who became her mentor. The group had a 1982 hit, Nasty Girl, and toured with Prince in the 1980s.

On her fundraising page, she said she was "born again" in 1992, turned away from the pop/rock lifestyle she now loathed, returned to using her birth name, and also got sick from her history of drug use.

"Prior to finding my Lord and Savior I lived in the bottomless pit of Hollywood's deception. Lust, drugs Rock n Roll....i was living in the depths of iniquity versed with carnality and suicidal thoughts of leaving this world," she wrote on her GoFundMe page.

She ended up with high blood pressure and suffered a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blood clots in the brain, she wrote. She became blind and deaf and was near death.

"With the devil breathing down my neck, trying desperately to snatch and strangle me for hell, I repented," she wrote. "I am Denise! no longer Vanity for the name means WORTHLESSNES...we are not worthless."

On her blameitonvanity.com website, where she promoted her autobiography of the same name, she wrote, "All I had become was thus painted on my face — vanity."

Other musicians and stars began tweeting soon after the news of her death.