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Courtney Love Lost “About $27 Million” in “Nirvana Money,” But I “Had to Let It Go”

Courtney Love attends an event on February 23, 2014

That’s a lot of flannel shirts! As the widow of Nirvana‘s tortured frontman Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love had access to one of the biggest fortunes in ’90s rock. As it turns out, the “Doll Parts” singer, 50, burned through a significant portion of that cash, she admitted in a new interview with the UK’s Sunday Times. “I lost about $27 million,” Love said, explaining that much of the dough went towards settling several lawsuits over the years.

PHOTOS: One of Court’s most epic feuds

In typical Love fashion, however, the Hole rocker isn’t sweating it. “I know that’s a lifetime of money to most people, but I’m a big girl, it’s rock ‘n roll, it’s Nirvana money, I had to let it go. I make enough to live on, I’m financially solvent, I focus on what I make now.”

One thing that helped her keep track of her money, she claimed, was cocaine and, later, crack. “I had to run very fast to look after my money and I felt cocaine helped me do that. So I started taking cocaine and that turned into nine months of crack,” said Love, mom to Cobain’s child Frances Bean, now 21.

courtney love and kurt cobain

Related: PHOTOS: Courtney buries the hatchet with Nirvana

Love is also quick to dispel rumors that Frances Bean, from whom she is famously estranged, has executive control over the Nirvana brand. “There’s this myth out there—put out by Frances’ lawyers—that Frances runs the catalogue, which is absolute nonsense,” Love revealed. “When she’s 40, she becomes a member of the board and she has a vote, but not now.”

Related: PHOTOS: Courtney, Madonna face off

As a current member of that board, Love said she has preserved the Nirvana song catalog from cheesy oversaturation in the pop cultural/commercial landscape—including an intriguing-sounding KFC campaign. “I’ve protected it [the Nirvana catalogue] from everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials to movies about board games,” Love said. “We’ve been offered $6 million for 18 seconds of one Nirvana song and I turned it down.”

The rock ‘n roll queen also revealed her bizarre encounter with actual royaly: Prince Charles’ younger brother Prince Andrew, who Love said once showed up at her home in L.A. looking for a party.

Related: PHOTOS: Kurt Cobain and other stars who died at age 27

“He rang the bell, but my antipodean nanny wouldn’t get up because she’s anti-monarchy, so I had to go down in my slippers and bathrobe,” Love recalled of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie’s father. “I had all these Jubilee mugs with pictures of the Queen on, so I made him a really good pot of tea and I hand him a mug with his mum on it, and he saw the joke. He asked, ‘What do you do all day?’ which I thought was just nerdy. I said, ‘What do you do all day, Prince?'”

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