Golden Bachelor’s Leslie Fhima Recalls Prince Relationship Before Marrying 1st Husband Brad

Before fans watched Leslie Fhima pursue a relationship with Gerry Turner on The Golden Bachelor, the runner-up dated Prince before she ultimately married her first husband, Brad.

“I was 18 and my cousin — his name is Bobby Z, he was Prince's drummer — but before even The Revolution became a band, he was Prince's friend,” Leslie, 64, explained about how she met Prince while appearing on the Tuesday, December 5, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “They just were very good friends, like Bobby took him to get his driver's license and all that and not only that, but my brother was his personal valet for 12 years and my sister did his makeup.”

She said that Prince was “amazing” before she explained, “I’d go to his house and he’d play guitar and sing for me. And, you know, he was an amazing person and people think he's so quiet, but he's hysterical. He was just really funny. Again, the humor I love.”

Leslie then claimed that she inspired his 1979 song “Sexy Dancer.”

“I was dancing in a fashion show and Bobby brought him to the fashion show, and you know, he's kind of like hiding behind a pole and I was coming downstairs dancing,” the reality star shared. “And after he goes, ‘You are a sexy dancer.’ I'm gonna write a song about you. I'm like, ‘Okay,’ so anyways, that song came out a little bit after.”

After she graduated from high school, Leslie became a professional figure skater in the Ice Follies and Prince’s career took off. “Every time, you know, he'd be in a city — especially like in L.A. at the Forum — he drove the limo up that ramp, and all the girls saw me get into the limo, and then he'd be writing me these amazing letters throughout my time in the Ice Follies,” she recalled.

Leslie revealed she began to view their relationship differently when they both returned to their hometown for Christmas break and made a plan to meet at a certain location at midnight.

Before their meeting, she attended a party at her cousin’s house and spotted Brad across the room. “I had known him before, but I see him and he is so handsome,” the reality star said. “And he's got these sleepy eyes and we started talking and I'm looking at my watch. It's 11:15, 11:30, 11:40, 11:45.”

“I had to make a game time decision. Do I stay? This could be my husband, really. Or do I go to Prince who probably [is] not going to be my husband someday?” she continued. “I had to make that decision. So 11:50, Whatever. And I just made that decision to stay with Brad, because I looked at him and I'm like…”

After host Joe Amabile said that Brad “might be the one,” Leslie agreed. “I adored Prince. But at the end of the day, you know, I knew that," she added. “I'm only 18 ... I have the show to go back to and then I did another show after that in Europe.”

Leslie explained she knew Brad was “the right choice” because he was “in love” with her for three years before they reconnected at the party. “I made a decision and we have this amazing son Zach,” she said. “And like I said, we're friends.”

The former fitness instructor eventually divorced Brad, while she also married and divorced her second husband before she joined the ABC show. Meanwhile, Prince married and divorced Mayte Garcia and Manuela Testolini before his death in 2016.