--- title: Prince's Sister Says His Favorite Color Wasn't Purple description: Although the hue most associated with Prince is definitely purple, his sister claims that it wasn't his favorite color. canonical: https://time.com/4922254/prince-favorite-color-not-purple/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-30T21:15:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:56.680Z og:title: Prince's Sister Says Purple Wasn't His Favorite Color og:description: Apparently His Purpleness was drawn to another area of the color wheel og:url: https://time.com/4922254/prince-favorite-color-not-purple/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta185c4eca5113b76/6988dbdb656a3f245fbd17ec/prince-favorite-color-not-purple.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Photo of PRINCE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prince's Sister Says Purple Wasn't His Favorite Color twitter:description: Apparently His Purpleness was drawn to another area of the color wheel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta185c4eca5113b76/6988dbdb656a3f245fbd17ec/prince-favorite-color-not-purple.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prince's Sister Says His Favorite Color Wasn't Actually Purple  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 30, 2017 9:15 PM UTC  UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: RITZ CLUB Photo of PRINCE, Prince performing on stage - Purple Rain Tour (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns) UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: RITZ CLUB Photo of PRINCE, Prince performing on stage - Purple Rain Tour (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)Richard E. Aaron—Redferns  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 30, 2017 9:15 PM UTC The color purple is so inextricably linked with the artist [Prince](http://time.com/4359619/prince-birthday-anecdotes/) that the musician is often referred to as “The Purple One” — and with good reason. He sported the color constantly, named an iconic album and movie [_Purple Rain_](http://time.com/4437859/prince-purple-rain-anniversary/), had instruments and performances completely saturated in the color and reportedly decorated an NBA player’s [entire mansion](http://www.espn.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=6270915) (including the fountain water) in the plummy shade. In fact, Prince’s love of purple recently inspired a [custom Pantone shade](http://time.com/4900239/pantone-prince-custom-color/), named “Love Symbol #2,” in honor of the time when His Purpleness was known as the artist formerly known as Prince. However, contrary to popular belief, his sister Tyka Nelson told [_The Evening Standard_](https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/arts/crown-jewels-of-prince-s-purple-reign-come-to-london-a3616416.html)that her brother’s favorite color was not purple, but orange. Nelson revealed Prince’s surprising preference while talking about a collection of his belongings from his estate at Paisley Park — which, it should be noted, is mostly decorated in shades of purple. “The stand out piece \[of his collection\] for me is his orange Cloud guitar,” she said. “It is strange because people always associate the color purple with Prince, but his favorite color was actually orange.” Prince’s fondness for orange isn’t so hard to fathom, despite his seeming preference for purple — he dressed in orange from time to time, including the shimmering orange pantsuit he wore to the 2015 Grammy Awards. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4922254/prince-favorite-color-not-purple/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4922254/prince-favorite-color-not-purple/"},"headline":"Prince's Sister Says His Favorite Color Wasn't Actually Purple","datePublished":"2017-08-30T21:15:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:56.680Z","description":"It's not what you think it is","url":"https://time.com/4922254/prince-favorite-color-not-purple/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral","Prince"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta185c4eca5113b76/6988dbdb656a3f245fbd17ec/prince-favorite-color-not-purple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta185c4eca5113b76/6988dbdb656a3f245fbd17ec/prince-favorite-color-not-purple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Photo of PRINCE","caption":"Photo of PRINCE","creditText":"Richard E. 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