Tamron Hall Reflects on Prince's Substance Abuse Problem: 'It Was a Devastating Surprise'

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Tamron Hall continues to mourn the loss of her close friend, Prince.

The NBC news anchor opened up to Andy Cohen on Wednesday during a special guest appearance on Watch What Happens Live.


EXCLUSIVE: Tori Kelly Got Emotional Seeing Prince During 'Very Moving' Emmys In Memorium Rehearsal

"It was a devastating surprise. I had no idea," she explained when asked about Prince's substance abuse problem. "I've spent a significant amount of time with him and I had no clue."

Prince was found dead on April 21 in an elevator of his Paisley Park complex outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. An autopsy later revealed that the music icon had died from a self-administered, accidental overdose of the opiod painkiller, Fentanyl. He was 57.

"I've learned a lot about substance abuse since then, and I think that people hide these dark secrets from the people they love," Hall continued. "Of course I question whether I missed signs … I never saw him even drink! So for me it was a devastating thing that I'm still dealing with."

In an interview with MSNBC back in April, Hall shared more details about her friendship with the "Purple Rain" singer.

"There are just great things about him I wish I could tell people, but he wanted them to stay private," Hall said. "He didn't want people to know all of the ways he helped other people. He did it as this silent angel, including how he helped me in my life on many occasions … I'm sorry for the world losing his gift, but he's not gone."


READ: Prince's Paisley Park to Become a Museum

Shortly after Prince's death, his longtime friend and onetime fiancée, Sheila E., got candid with ET about the physical pain that the superstar was in prior to his death.

"I mean, you think about all the years he was jumping off those risers," she recalled. "They were not low -- they were very, very high -- and to jump off that ... First of all, the Purple Rain tour and the way that they were stacked, he had those heels on. We did a year of touring [and] for him to jump off of that -- just an entire year would have messed up his knees."

"He was in pain all the time, but he was a performer," she added. See the interview below.

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