Prince was treated for an overdose just six days before he was found dead in his Minnesota estate on Thursday, a report has claimed.
News of the alleged overdose came as photos emerged of Prince walking out of a Walgreens pharmacy just 15 hours before he was pronounced dead.
Prince’s private plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, on Friday after he performed in Atlanta so he could be rushed to hospital.
Though his representatives said he was battling the flu, multiple sources told TMZ that doctors gave him a ‘save shot’, which is usually given in dire circumstances to drug overdose victims.
The sources said that doctors advised Prince to stay at the hospital for 24 hours, but when he wasn’t given a private room, he and his representatives decided to leave. When he left the hospital, Prince ‘was not doing well’, the sources added.
He was released three hours later and made an appearance at a party in Minnesota the next day, telling fans to ‘wait a few days before you waste any prayers’.
The 57-year-old music icon was then seen at about 7pm on Wednesday at a Walgreens pharmacy looking ‘frail and nervous’ with a group of employees or friends. It was his fourth visit to the pharmacy this week.
It is unknown why he went to the store himself or if he picked up a prescription, though per Walgreens protocol, anyone with Prince’s phone number and address could have retrieved medication for him.
Prince was then found unresponsive in the elevator at his suburban Paisley Park estate in Minnesota at 9.43am EST on Thursday and was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later.
His cause of death is not known, but in a call to paramedics on the way to Prince’s home, a 911 dispatcher said: ‘Male down, not breathing.’
In the midst of the phone call, the dispatcher asks, ‘Are you with the person who’s…’ and the unidentified male responds, ‘Yes, it’s Prince’.
The caller struggles to find the address of the home and has to ask several people for numbers and streets.
He struggles to decipher Minneapolis from the suburban Chanhassen, and tells the dispatcher they’re in Minneapolis before finally telling the dispatcher that they are at Paisley Park.
The dispatcher finally gets the address sorted out – after realizing that it is Prince that is unresponsive – and sends an ambulance toward the estate in Chanhassen.
An autopsy will be performed on Friday to determine the exact cause of the star’s death.
TMZ reported that the seven-time Grammy award winning singer’s plane diverted to Quad City International Airport in Moline, Illinois, last Friday to make the emergency landing.
It is unclear which hospital Prince was taken to in Moline following the emergency landing. The closest hospital to the airport is Trinity Regional Health System. The city is also home to the Genesis Health Plex.
Prince had previously revealed that he was epileptic and had suffered seizures as a child. He was bullied at school over his condition which he said he dealt with by developing his iconic larger-than-life personality.
The singer, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, later told his mother he had been cured by an angel.
While Prince never made clear if he was still struggling to live with epilepsy, his song The Sacrifice of Victor tells the story of a boy who was ‘epileptic ’til the age of seven’.
Meanwhile, Aretha Franklin made the bizarre suggestion that Prince may have contracted the Zika virus
The Purple Rain hitmaker had performed at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta on last Thursday night – the second of two back to back sold out shows – and had seemed fine during the concert.
Prince made what is believed to have been his final public appearance on Saturday at a dance party in Minnesota.
He was keen for people to have ‘living proof’ that he was still alive, and he arrived at the bash to show off his new guitar and piano.
He didn’t sing, but he did tell the crowd: ‘Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.’
A picture posted by a fan on Instagram appeared to show Prince riding a bicycle outside his estate on Sunday.
Prince’s $10million Paisley Park compound sits just more than half an hour outside Minneapolis, and the musician would host parties and record music at the estate, according to CBS Minnesota.
Construction began on the estate, which was designed and owned by Prince, in 1985 and it officially opened on September 11, 1987.
It featured a 12,000 square-foot soundstage, guitar room, game room, and ‘The Vault’, where he stored unreleased material.
He allowed fans to buy passes to tour the estate in 2000, but no one was allowed in The Vault.
Prince was known for his sexually charged lyrics and was romantically linked to a number of male and female stars, including Madonna, Sinead O’Connor, Kim Basinger, Kylie Minogue, Carmen Electra and Boy George, among a number of other people.
A 12-inch single, Scandalous Sex Suite, included vocals from Kim Basinger and moans heard on the track were rumored to be recordings of the pair having sex.
Last year Boy George claimed he had slept with Prince.
During filming of The Voice in the UK, he made light of Paloma Faith saying she had performed live with Prince.
‘Forget that, darling, I’ve slept with Prince,’ he replied.
Prince also slept with close friend and collaborating artist Sheila E while he was in a relationship with Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Wendy Melvoin – who was in his band, The Revolution.
Prince married backup dance Mayte Garcia on Valentine’s Day in 1996. He dedicated the song The Most Beautiful Girl in the World to her two years earlier.
