In an interview Monday, pop icon, Prince, revealed for the first time that he has the neurological disorder, epilepsy.

The singer told PBS’s Tavis Smiley,

“I’ve never spoken about this before but I was born epileptic. I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had.”

Prince says as a young boy he told his mother that an angel visited him. “My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, ‘Mom, I’m not going to be sick anymore,’ and she said ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Because an angel told me so.’ Now, I don’t remember saying it, that’s just what she told me.”

He adds that his childhood was complicated by constant bullying. “From that point on, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of things, getting teased a lot in school. And early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could.”

You can catch Part 3 of the interview tonight on PBS.

I never knew this about Prince, and believe me, I thought I knew everything about him in the 7th grade. (Yes, that was 1984.) My father also had epillepsy and so I know what a difficult thing it can be to manage and how hard it is on a family – and specifically the person afflicted with the disorder. Seeing your dad convulse on the floor at a young age was absolutely terrifying.

Bravo to Prince for “coming out” so to speak. It is such a common condition but yet it is rarely discussed publicly. Kudos.

[PM]