singer actress model and talent manager patricia apollonia cotero
was born and raised in santa monica california but her parents moved around quite a lot
so she did spend some time in san fernando and san pedro the eldest of four children of mexican
immigrants she also speaks fluent spanish and italian her middle name that she would adopt as
her stage name came from the olympian deity in classic greek and roman mythology named apollo
recognized as a god of music and dance the sun and light poetry and much more at the age of 16
apollonia would drop out of high school to pursue a career as a model while also working a regular 9
to 5. her parents were going through a divorce at the time so her paychecks were a great help to her
mother she would admit many years later though that dropping out was the biggest mistake she
could have ever done after winning the miss san pedro beauty competition apollonia embarked on a
short stint as a cheerleader for the los angeles rams in the early 80s she ended up leaving after
only one year because she was essentially getting ripped off the cheerleaders were paid only 15 to
20 dollars per game and didn't receive any pay at all for rehearsals or traveling on top of that not
everyone was selected to perform at every game so the ones that were had to put half of their
money in a pot to be evenly distributed later to all the other cheerleaders who didn't work
she then decided to start taking her acting career seriously and begun taking lessons eventually she
would land roles in various television series such as chips fantasy island and knight rider
around this time apollonia's agent would get a call from van halen's singer david lee roth
about wanting her to do a magazine cover shoot with him she says it wasn't love at first sight
but eventually they would begin dating their relationship was never serious according to her
since they would only see each other as their schedules permitted but she does remember him
being very respectful about not rushing into intimacy and introducing her to his parents while
dating david apollonia found out about an audition for prince's 1984 film purple reign originally
vanity the leader of the vocal trio prince put together vanity 6 and girlfriend had been tapped
for the female lead role she ultimately decided to bail on the projects some reports say after
discovering his infidelities while others claimed they couldn't come to an agreement over the pay
she also decided to leave the singing group that left the door wide open for apollonia she fondly
recalled the experience in a 2015 episode of owns where are they now after the first audition she
received a call back to come out to minneapolis to meet prince he picked her up and they went for
a date that evening driving around in a purple limo it was at the audition that she formally
took on apollonia as her professional name at his suggestion when i auditioned for prince he looked
at me and said well you don't look like a paddy and i responded well you don't look like a prince
we had a little stare down and he asked if i had a middle name once he heard apollonia he instantly
said that's it that sounds better from now on you're apollonia and so that was that apollonia
was born over the years when asked about how intimate their relationship got she's always said
that she never kisses and tells but maintains that they never dated speaking of kisses apollonia says
her first kiss with prince was actually during the filming of the movie in her where are they now
episode she described their relationship in the past and currently as platonically romantically
involved they shared a lot of romance but she was not his girlfriend and he was not her boyfriend
in 2021 abalone told vlad tv that prince had a lot of respect for her and took good care of her
sometimes to a fault when he had people follow her and had her phone tapped she says
probably just to make sure she wasn't running around with the wrong crowd and being naughty
she also told the story of their terrible first day of filming purple rain during the first take
of the first scene as she and prince were riding on a motorcycle driven by him they completely
wiped out prince was able to escape without injury but apollonia ended up trapped underneath
sustaining serious burns on her leg from the exhaust pipe vanity 6 was renamed apollonius 6
for the film and also featured supporting singers brenda bennett and susan moonsie music was a huge
part of the film and apollonia got singled out to do a duet with prince on take me with you
a song featured on the soundtrack the film would go on to win an academy award for best original
song score and two grammys after the movie premiered apollonia and vanity finally met
after vanity reached out apollonia has said that she was a fan and wanted to be friends
but it never happened due to vanity publicly tarnishing her name as upset as she was about the
whole thing apollonia later forgave vanity after finding out all the trials and tribulations she
endured throughout her life namely her traumatic childhood drug addiction and debilitating health
issues one aspect of apollonia's career many may not know is that she wrote a couple of
major hit songs for other artists in the 80s she had written half the lyrics along with
prince and originally recorded a version of the song manic monday for her group's debut album
the song later became a worldwide hit single for punk rock band the bengals percussionist sheila e
also benefited when she recorded the glamorous life again co-written by apollonia and friends
she did receive credits for the lyrics but not the publishing a failure of prince that apollonia says
caused a lot of problems between him and other people was not signing contracts and paying people
she also claims that he never even trademarked her group name for a long time apollonius 6 was
released in october 1984 it featured the tracks sex shooter which the group performed in purple
rain it was also written and produced by prince and became a top 20 hit on the r b chart soon
after apollonia left prince's camp to continue her acting career and appeared on the cbs primetime
soap opera falcon crest playing a character fittingly named apollonia in 1988 warner brothers
records released apollonia's solo self-titled album three singles were taken from it since i
fell for you the same dream and mismatch it didn't do well and not too long after she went to the
label and asked to be released from her contract the opportunity for apollonia and prince to
reunite would come up when he approached her to be in his unofficial sequel to purple rain graffiti
bridge however after apollonia read over the script she told him that it was quote a piece of
a bigger reason for her not to do it was the money he wasn't willing to pay her what she wanted so
she turned him down and went back to acting in 2016 apollonia would reunite with her former
group members brenda and susan as well as prince under very sad circumstances
they would all gather at a memorial service for denise matthews formerly known as vanity who had
passed away the week before everyone also attended prince's concert scheduled for the following night
little did they know that night would be the last time they would see him prince rogers
nelson would pass away just two months later from an accidental fentanyl overdose apollonia
and prince had begun to reconnect just before he passed she got a chance to witness him making
the effort to right previous wrongs by getting susan and brenda's bank information to pay them
as well as herself out of all the money he recouped from warner when he got his masters back
they talked about making movies writing their autobiographies and doing another apollonia 6
project after his death apollonia would go through a deep depression she fell into a rabbit hole lost
a lot of weight couldn't sleep and was consumed by survivor's guilt at night she would even pray
for god to take her life a few months later she wrote a lengthy message to prince on facebook
that she says was therapeutic my dear prince i have never known you to leave the stage so early
four long dreadful months have passed since god welcomed you home grief depression anger and
loneliness are like those bullies who taunted me in grade school they have been relentless my life
has been a vortex of rage and despair waves of sadness washing away the pieces of my broken heart
my own personal hell on earth i feel like your widow unfortunately she's also been caught in
the battle over prince's estate concerning her rights to the apollonia 6 trademark apollonia
says that just prior to his passing he told her he wanted her to keep the name to earn a living
now it's in jeopardy of being taken away from her apollonia decided to get into the podcasting game
by launching her own show called apollonia studio 6 broadcasted exclusively on her youtube channel
of the same name in december 2021 she along with her co-host feature a mixture of guests from music
film tv fashion and more she's also now ready to get back to doing all the other things she loves
my passion is work singing acting dancing producing writing i'm a songwriter i'm
feeling better about life my life has changed prince changed my life when i first met him
and he had me in his film he changed my life again when he was taken away from us too soon
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