Denise Katrina Matthews was born on the 4th January 1959, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and was a singer, actress and model. She started her career as a model and, discovered by Prince, became known for having played in the feminine trio Vanity 6 and had modest success as a solo singer and film actress. Debilitated by a life full of excesses, she abandoned the world of entertainment at the end of the 1990s to undertake religious activity as a preacher. She passed away in 2016.
So just how rich was Vanity? It had been estimated by authoritative sources that the overall size of her net worth was as much as $1.5 million, converted to the present day, earned during her 20 year career in the entertainment industry.
Vanity Net Worth $1.5 Million
To begin with, she was raised in Niagara Falls in Canada. Her father James Levia Matthews was African-American, whereas her mother Helga Senyk was Jewish of German-Polish origin. Her childhood was troubled: his father often abused her and her sisters, and her mother had problems with alcohol. Vanity was also a victim of bullying at school for her timid character and mixed ethnicity. Her father died in 1974, when the girl was 15 years old.
Tired of poor living conditions, Vanity moved to Toronto where she undertook modelling. In 1977, she won the competition Miss Niagara Hospitality and participated in the beauty pageant for the title of Miss Canada the following year. Later, she moved to New York but her modelling career was limited to the fields of advertising and photo shoots. She appeared on the covers of two albums: “Alligator Woman” (1982) and “She’s Strange” (1984) by Cameo, and in 1985 and in 1988 she posed for the magazine Playboy, all contributing to her net worth.
In 1980, she met Prince at the American Music Awards, which gave a boost to his career. Vanity became the singer of the project Vanity 6 , a female trio created and produced by Prince. The group was known for its explicit sexual themes, but created just one self-titled album in 1982. The first single was called “Nasty Girl” (1982), and was featured in the film “Beverly Hills Cop” by Martin Brest. After leaving Vanity 6 she recorded two solo albums: “Wild Animal” (1984) and “Skin on Skin” (1986), under the label of Motown Records. The first contains the song “Strap On ‘Robbie Baby”, which was criticized for its explicit content and in 1985 it was listed as Filthy Fifteen, in which the fifteen most outrageous songs were listed.
As an actress, Vanity starred in such films as “The Last Dragon” (1985) by Michael Schultz and “Action Jackson” (1988) by Craig R. Baxley. In the late 1980s, the appearances of Vanity became more sporadic, essentially small parts in several television series such as “Miami Vice”, “Highlander”, “Booker” and “Friday the 13th”.
Because of an overdose of crack, in 1994 Vanity was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in very serious condition. After she was discharged, she began to pursue a spiritual path, and became a born-again Christian. The artist claimed to have received a visit from Jesus who promised to save her from death if she abandoned the character of Vanity. In the late 1990s, Vanity definitely left the world of show business and became a preacher, giving speeches in churches around the USA. In 2010 she published an autobiographical book entitled “Blame It On Vanity”.
Finally, in the personal life of Vanity, she had partners Prince (1980 – 1983) and Nikki Sixx (1983 – 1986), and was married to Anthony Smith from 1995 to 1996. She died from kidney failure at the age of 57 on the 15th February 2016 in Fremont, California. Her remains were cremated and the ashes scattered off the Hawaiian Islands.
