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Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
From People Weekly May 29, 2001
Out of the Rain
The scene was supposed to be steamy, but Apollonia remembers it as anything but. Filming the Oscar-winning rock musical Purple Rain with Prince in November 1984, the actress had to strip to her underwear and dive into freezing Lake Minnetonka, outside Minneapolis. After multiple takes, she collapsed from hypothermia. "When I came out of it," she recalls, "Prince's voice was cracking. He kept saying, 'I love you. I love you, Apollonia.' That was the best he ever took care of me. Like I was a golden little princess.''
After a decade out of the spotlight, the former Prince protegee is developing an animated children's show, launching a cosmetics line for Latinas called B.A. Calendar Girl and even helping produce a Las Vegas show starring former Baywatch star -- and Prince paramour -- Carmen Electra. "I'm in a different place now," says Apollonia, 42 "I'm out of my shell."
Rarely wears purple
Escaping the shadow of her former mentor, however, hasn't been easy. For years, she says, casting agents simply lumped her in with Prince's other creations -- Vanity, Sheila E. and Electra -- and she was offered mostly sex-object roles. "People would think we're like these little purple soldiers," she says with a laugh, referring to Prince's favored hue. "To this day it's very rare that I'll wear purple."
But even as a child growing up in Santa Monica, Apollonia couldn't resist the spotlight. "I would dance on tabletops for silver dollars," says the woman born Patricia Apollonia Kotero, the oldest of six children of Mexican immigrants Victor, a restaurant manager, and Socorro, a caregiver for the elderly. "I wanted to entertain." Dropping out of high school at 16 ("That's my bone in the closet," she says with regret), she quickly lined up work as a model, actress and cheerleader for the L.A. Rams football team. "She made her first million by the time she was 24," marvels her brother George, 40, an entrepreneur.
She met Prince when she auditioned for the Purple Rain part at an open call in 1984. "I had his 1999 tape and thought it would be fun to work with him," she says. But Prince, who had recently split from his previous protegee Vanity, "was looking for not just a leading lady in a film but a leading lady in his life." Although she insists she and Prince "never had a relationship," Apollonia admits she acquiesced to his demands that she break up with her then-boyfriend, Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth. "Prince didn't want me to be known for dating someone famous," she says. "He made me promise I wouldn't date anyone publicly during promotion of the film."
Prince dictated her diet
There were other demands as well, including his insistence that she eat only what he ate, often just candy and tea. "He wanted to make everyone clones of himself," says Apollonia. "We had to sing like him and dress like him. I still love him, but there was a side of him that was just a tyrant."
In 1987, after the film hoopla died down, Apollonia wed actor Kevin Bernhardt (General Hospital's Dr. Kevin O'Connor), whom she had met at a Los Angeles nightclub in 1984. But fame put a strain on the relationship almost from the beginning. "It didn't take long before he was tired of always being Mr. Apollonia,'' says the actress, who went on to small parts on the CBS drama Falcon Crest and in straight-to-video films.
Divorced since 1997, Apollonia says that for the time being she's happy focusing on her work and hanging out with friends like Electra, whom she met when Electra moved in next door -- by chance -- to her L.A. townhouse in 1998. But they never discuss you know who. "You'd think we would,'' says Electra, "but we don't. We have our own friendship.'' As for the artist once again known as Prince? He and Apollonia haven't spoken in years. Yet "I wouldn't change a minute of it," she says. "It allowed me to become the woman I am now."
This article is from 1988 or 1989. I don't know which magazine it came from though.
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From Jet Sept. 16, 1986
Apollonia Talks about
Life After 'Falcon Crest'
 After youve been dubbed a sex goddess for co-starring in one of the biggest motion pictures of all time, led a sexy trio known for its risque music and featured in a nighttime soap just to spur the ratings, what more could you ask for? Well, Apollonia wants more of the same. Born Patricia Apollonia Kotero,the nubile singer-actress gained national exposure as Princes girlfriend in the blockbuster film Purple Rain. Those steamy love scenes with the rock star set pulses and hearts racing and catapulted Apollonia right where she wanted to be in the limelight. A spinoff from the movie was Apollonia 6, a singing trio led by the beauty that was known more so for its scant lacy outfits and sexy lyrics than harmony. As a result of this tremendous exposure, the 27-year-old beauty was asked to bring her alluring, seductive style to the set ofFalcon Crest, which was taking a beating in the ratings, to boost viewership. The strategy worked. Viewers tuned in to see Apollonia play a character not much unlike herselfbold, beautiful and determined. After 10 segments last season of playing the love interest of Lorenzo Lamas and a thorn in the side of Falcon Crest matriarch Jane Wyman, the actress has her sights set on life after her notorious role in the series.Looking back, Apollonia said in a recent EBONY/JET Showcase interview, she decided not to do more segments on the show because it was like a ball and chain for me. She continued, It takes a lot of work and detion... and with my recordings and doing films. . .I couldn't do that. I needed to evolve into other things and my work is always taking me different places. You have to be committed to that show and I just couldnt do that right now. What she is doing now besides screening show business offers and recording, is lending her name and designs to a line of womens sportswear and her trademark lingerie. Known for wearing skimpy, next-to-nothing lingerie on the screen and on stage and in public, Apollonia feels that the silky, sexy undies can bring women new life if theyre daring enough to wear the creations. Lingerie can stay on the hanger, but if you bring it to life that's what's important, she pointed out. Its 50 per cent of what I've designed and accomplished as a designer, but it has to be the lady who just lights it up, she said comparing a woman without lingerie to a Christmas tree without a star.
Record, movie, clothing design and television offers continue to flow in and Apollonia scrutinizes each to find the project that suits her best. I thank God for everything that I have. I am flattered that I do have a choice... Whatever she chooses, Apollonia realizes You have to work. You have to be aggressive. You have to earn your own success . 
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