Hannah Simone Reveals Prince Guest Starred on “New Girl” Because He Had a Crush on Her

On her podcast ‘The Mess Around,’ Simone recalled the “Purple Rain” icon specifically requesting to play ping-pong with her in a scene

Prince’s iconic guest appearance on New Girl came about because he was smitten with star Hannah Simone.

That’s according to the actress herself and the show’s costume designer Debra McGuire. The pair chatted about the “Purple Rain” singer’s 2014 guest appearance on the Fox sitcom on Simone’s podcast The Mess Around, with McGuire teasing that Prince wanted to be on the show “because he had a crush on our little Hannah.”

“Yeah,” the Not Dead Yet star, 44, admitted. “He tried for a very long time to find a way to be in the same room together.”

Related: Max Greenfield Is Hesitant for a 'New Girl' Reboot Because 'It Wasn't That Long Ago'

But Simone, who played fashion model Cece Parekh on the beloved show, said she was not interested the music icon “in that way.”

“Love a Prince song. Happy to put on a Prince record. I was not interested in anything else,” Simone explained. “So, I was never in the same room with Prince. And then yeah, he was like a teenage boy who showed up at my job, which was really funny.”

Simone went on to reveal that the scene in which her character plays ping-pong with the seven-time Grammy award winner, which played during the episode’s credits, was Prince’s idea.

“Apparently with people that he really likes to have that quality time with, he liked to play ping-pong,” she said. “It was like five in the morning, they had to write in the tag — 'cause how were they going to incorporate ping-pong into the show? And they had to write this tag where Prince would get his request, which was: He wanted to play ping-pong with me.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Prince’s love of ping-pong was apparently well-known. In his 2016 book, Your Favorite Band is Killing Me, author Steven Hyden recounts the time the pop star challenged rival Michael Jackson to a game. And following Prince’s death that same year, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon recalled the time the “Little Red Corvette” singer “kicked my ass” at the game.

Simone said the ping-pong scene was the last thing the New Girl crew shot for the episode, fearing Prince would peace out as soon as he got his “quality time” with her.

Related: Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson Hold Hands at Express Yourself 2022 in Sweet 'New Girl' Reunion

“He's Prince,” Simone said. “So, he could be like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna go now.’ And so we saved it for the end.”

“The thing that I’ll never [forget] is — I don’t play ping-pong, I’m not a good ping-pong player,” Simone recalled. “I was so tired. It had been a 20-something hour day, and I just slammed the shot. I was just so tired, my body just went like, ‘We’re doing it.’ And then he was like — he genuinely did walk off, which was really funny.”