When Denise met Prince in the early `80s, he was a rising star and she was an unknown actress and model. They met after Denise had given some lyrics to Prince`s manager, who passed her work on to Prince. Prince and Denise began an intense love affair soon after they met. Prince decided to put together an all-girl singing group, with Denise as the star of the group. Prince toyed with idea of calling the group Hookers. It was also rumored that Prince originally wanted Denise`s stage name to be Vagina and the group to be called Vagina Sex. But realizing those names would be too controversial, Denise was given the name Vanity and her group was called Vanity 6.
Vanity was scheduled to play the leading lady role in Prince`s movie "Purple Rain," but she exited the project. Some reports say she quit, others say she was fired. Not long afterwards, Prince and Vanity split up for good, and Vanity was replaced in the film by Apollonia (real name Patty Kotero), who was also romantically involved with Prince.