Nia Long is looking back on one of Hollywood’s biggest missed connections.
During a recent appearance on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, the actress recalled unknowingly brushing off Prince years before she became a household name. Long said she had no idea the legendary musician was trying to introduce himself until she had already left the event.
Long introduced the story by explaining why she has kept one particular pair of shoes for decades.
“I still have my Kenneth Cole black snake embossed shoes that I wore when Prince tried to talk to me,” she said. “I didn’t know it was Prince.”
Host Angie Martinez then asked whether Prince had been flirting with her.
“Yeah,” Long replied.
She demonstrated how the interaction unfolded, recalling that Prince reached for her hand.
“He grabbed my hand, and I was like…” Long said, pulling her hand back while recreating her surprised reaction.
Only after leaving the party did she learn who the mysterious man had been.
“We got to the car and my hatin’-ass girlfriend at the time — because she should have told me earlier, let’s be real, it was Prince — she goes, ‘Girl, you know that was Prince,’” Long recalled.
“I go, ‘Why didn’t you tell me before we left the building?’”
Long admitted she would have handled the encounter differently if she had recognized the Grammy-winning artist.
“Well, if I knew it was Prince, I would have just turned around and said, ‘Hello,’” she said.
A Different Meeting Years Later
Although the first encounter ended in confusion, Long eventually met Prince again after establishing herself in Hollywood.
This time, she said, the conversation took an unexpected turn.
“And then I met him years later once I became an actress,” Long said. “I was like, ‘I met you a long time ago,’ and he was lovely, but we talked about my hair the whole time because he liked my haircut.”
Martinez joked that Prince was no longer flirting.
“He was no longer shooting a shot?”
“He was not,” Long answered.
Martinez also pointed out that Prince had approached Long before she was famous.
“So he wasn’t giving you the arm touch because you were Nia Long because you weren’t even Nia Long then?”
“No,” Long replied. “He was giving me the arm touch because I was petite and brown, and that’s what he likes. He’s like, ‘Who’s this little young, hot girl in the fake leather pumps?’ In the outfit that I wore to every party.”
Long said the memorable evening included another future Hollywood connection.
“Denzel [Washington] was just there,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t talk to Denzel at that point, but I was like, ‘Denzel Washington’s here.’ These shoes have miles on them!”
The actress explained that the shoes became a keepsake because they reminded her of that unforgettable night.
“I was like, ‘This was the night I met Denzel Washington and Prince in the same night. I’m keeping these pumps for my daughter,’” Long said before correcting herself. “I mean, I’m never going to have a daughter, but my granddaughter. I’m done with kids.”
Prince died in April 2016 at age 57, leaving behind one of music’s most influential legacies.