Divinity, a white dove owned by Prince, died on Tuesday at the surprisingly advanced age of 28. Divinity lived at the musician’s Paisley Park home since the 1990s and greeted visitors when it was opened as a museum in 2016. Prince died in April 2016 at 57 from an accidental opioid overdose.
Divinity was among several doves Prince kept at Paisley Park, officials told WCCO. “She was one of the enduring links to Prince for thousands of fans,” Paisley Park executive director Alan Seiffert, said. “She will be missed.” Mitch Maquire, the museum’s legacy preservationist, said there will soon be a “new generation of doves” at the estate. Divinity’s male companion, Majesty, died in January 2017.
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While Prince’s obsession with purple was his most famous, he also loved doves, famously writing the 1984 hit “When Doves Cry.” In 1992, he featured Majesty in the video for his single “7,” in which Prince’s future wife, Mayte Garcia, kissed him on the head. Divinity and Majesty even received credit as performers on his 2002 song “Arboretum,” which was included on the album One Nite Alone, notes the Star Tribune. Both doves lived longer than their usual lifespan. Doves usually live between 12 and 15 years as pets. After Prince’s death, the doves reportedly stopped cooing but began to again when Paisley Park staff started playing his music in the atrium.
Although it has been almost five years since Prince’s death, the estate has been faced with several legal issues. Notably, the singer reportedly did not leave a will. The most recent legal issue surfaced in early January. The IRS determined that the estate is worth $136.2 million, more than double what the executors at Comerica Bank & Trust submitted, reports the Star Tribune. The IRS believes Prince’s estate owes $32.4 million in federal taxes and added a $6.4 million “accuracy-related penalty” on the estate. “This is a large discrepancy, both in terms of the dollars involved and the fact that the IRS thinks the estate is worth twice as much,” Michael Smith, an estate planning attorney at Larkin Hoffman who is not involved in the case, told the Star Tribune.
The IRS found the executors even undervalued Prince’s music. The fair market value for Prince’s portion of NPG Music Publishing should be $36.9 million, not $21 million, as the estate estimated. Prince’s ownership of NPG Records should be valued at $46.5 million, $27 million more than what the estate estimated. The IRS said the estate undervalued Prince’s interest in his compositions by $11 million and his business property by $36 million.
