Prince’s Divorce Filing from Ex-Wife Manuela Testolini to Be Unsealed

A Minneapolis judge has ordered that Prince’s 2006 divorce decree from ex-wife Manuela Testolini to be unsealed next month, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

As we previously reported, attorneys for Testolini asked a judge to prohibit the Minneapolis Star Tribune from opening the divorce filings. Her attorneys believed unsealing the documents will only bring harassment to Testolini and her children will become “targets.”

But an attorney for the Star Tribune maintains that common law and the First Amendment supported its request to unseal the documents.

On Wednesday (Dec. 21), Judge Thomas S. Fraser issued an order to unsealed the divorce records on Jan. 13, 2017. He did allow for certain details - like financial information - to be redacted from the release. The judge also wrote in his order that the filing doesn’t contain much other information that warrants being censored from the public.

"While most parties to a divorce would prefer that the details be kept private, the divorce process is a public one, requiring public courts and resources to manage the proceeding and either determine or approve the result," Fraser wrote.

Prince's half-brother Omarr Baker and Bremer Trust, the special administrator overseeing Prince's estate, supported Testolini's request to delayed the documents' release. Testolini, who is currently married to R&B singer Eric Benet, had no comment on the matter.

Prince married Manuela Testolini in 2001 in a private ceremony; she filed for divorce in May 2006. The late musician died on April 21 from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.