June 1985 Playboy centerfold model Devin Devasquez talks about her fleeting but passionate romance with the late musical singer Prince in the 1980s.

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“He was small, but such a sexy, charming guy. I was totally in love with him,” Devasquez, now an actress and producer, told WHO. “During the Purple Rain tour, he flew me to all the concerts across the country.”

The couple dated (on and off) for six months in 1985, spending nights together at extravagant after-concert parties and indulging in lavish hotel meals early in the morning.

Devin in the 80s. Photo: Getty

“We went dancing with Sheila E. and his band, but he always said no one was allowed to talk to me,” she says. “He liked me to be mysterious, and I was.”

Devasquez met Prince at a concert in Chicago in December 1984 after a member of the “Little Red Corvette” singer’s entourage showed him a photo of the model before the show.

“Prince sent a limousine to pick me up that night and put me in the front row in the middle of the concert,” Devasquez recalls. “I saw how sexy he was on stage. Here I was, right up close to the stage, and he played the whole concert for me, licking his hand and making sexual gestures!”

Devin Devasquez today. Photo: Instagram

The former model said she had never seen anything like Prince’s first exotic, sensual performance.

“He ended up doing the splits, his pants were ripped and he had no underwear on,” she says, laughing. “I put my hands over my mouth and said, ‘Oh my God!’ He looked embarrassed.”

After the show, Chick Huntsberry, Prince’s bodyguard, drove Devin back to his hotel in a van. The vehicle spun out of control, crossed three lanes of traffic and slammed into the medium. Devasquez says they ended up hitchhiking back.

For more information on Prince’s life and death, see the WHO’s 20-page collector’s edition – on sale now.

“I’m lying in the (hotel) room with my eyes closed and trying to relax, and suddenly … I wake up and Prince is standing over the bed looking down at me,” she says. “He looked very shy, he wasn’t the same person he was when he played the whole concert for me on stage and ripped his pants.”

Prince on stage. Photo: Getty

The two talked for hours that evening – and Prince invited Devasquez to Sheila E.’s birthday the next day.

“But I couldn’t go because I was flying to Los Angeles the next day… to meet Hugh Hefner for the first time!” she says. “When I arrived at the (Playboy) mansion, there was a message waiting for me saying that Prince would like to call…”

The day after Christmas, Devasquez received a call from him at 2 a.m. sharp.

“He had a very deep voice on the phone,” she recalls. “He says, ‘This is Prince.’ He said, ‘I’m sorry I’m calling so late, I was at a gig and I’m a night owl.’ We talked on the phone for several hours.”

Devasquez says that the purple man called her every day at the same time for the next few days.

“I said, ‘You’re so different on the phone, but you were so shy in person! How do I know that’s really you?'” she says. “And so he had his tour manager make arrangements to fly me to Dallas for a show on New Year’s Day 1985.”

When Devasquez arrived in Texas, Prince’s bodyguard was waiting for her. He had taped a handwritten note to his Around the World in a Day album that read, “I hope your trip was cool. This is my new album. It’s pretty weird, so you might like it.”

When she arrived at the concert venue, the “Purple Rain” singer immediately led her backstage.

Devin in her Prince outfit. Photo: Devin Instagram

“I stared at him in the mirror and he said, ‘Devin, I’m sure you’ve never seen a man wear makeup,'” she says. “He gave me one of his outfits and said, ‘Here, put it on!’ and he said, ‘You can have that!’ I went into the audience and everyone thought I was Apollonia.”

After the show, Prince went dancing with Devasquez with Sheila E. and the band.

This routine – talking on the phone every night, flying to concerts and attending lavish after-parties – continued for six months.

“I accompanied his father, Mr. Nelson, to some of his concerts,” the ex-girlfriend recalls.

Devasquez says she was deeply “in love” with Prince, but they ended the relationship amicably in the summer of 1985 when he told her there was “a controlling side to him” that he never wanted to show her.

“He respected me and our relationship. He also knew I was old-fashioned… and that I wouldn’t be one of many girls,” she says. “We didn’t speak for months.”

But just a month after Devasquez’s photos appeared in the June 1985 issue of Playboy, she says Prince called her from overseas while he was filming a music video in Nice, France.

“He called me from Nice and said he missed me and asked me to come visit him,” she says. “I said, ‘I thought you were living with someone?’ and he said, ‘Well, I miss you!’ and I said, ‘Well, I miss you too, but it doesn’t work that way for me.'”

Devasquez says the person Prince was living with at the time was Susannah Melvoin.

The cause of Prince’s death on April 21 at the age of 57 has not yet been determined. And although longtime attorney L. Londell McMillan insists the singer “was not taking any medications that would give cause for concern,” sources confirm to WHO that Prince has taken the prescription painkiller Percocet in the past.

Devasquez, who is heartbroken over the loss of her former lover, says she wouldn’t be surprised if his death was actually related to painkillers.

Prince on stage. Photo: Getty

“I never saw him drink or do drugs. He was a total workaholic and immersed in his music,” she says. “My feeling is that he was probably in pain from dancing in high heels all those years. He probably injured himself and I feel like he probably became addicted to painkillers because there was no way he would voluntarily do drugs, at least not as I knew him.”

“He wouldn’t tolerate anyone taking drugs around him. He was too controlling to want to lose control because of drugs,” says Devasquez. “He could have been in pain, he was always trying to help others anonymously. He didn’t have anyone to tell him, ‘Hey, you need to rest!’ I wouldn’t be surprised if he was taking painkillers.”

For more information on Prince’s life and death, see the WHO’s 20-page collector’s edition – on sale now.

Rose Minutaglio writes for People.