Prince and Mayte Garcia met in 1990 and were married from 1996 to 2000. Their first child died of a genetic disorder and Garcia miscarried the second time.
Becoming a parent is a significant milestone. Parenting teaches us humility and patience, and important things about ourselves and the world. Unfortunately, not everybody is lucky to have this experience and they don't take it well when their dreams are dashed by something out of their control. They might lash out at a partner or others in their life to deal with the grief of losing their child.
Popstar Prince, who was married to dancer Mayte Garcia from 1996 to 2000, took out his anger over losing their children on her. Garcia couldn't control the situations and was going through an emotional time herself. After all, she was the one who was pregnant and losing her babies.
Their relationship didn't begin with unhappiness even though they did start in controversy. The couple, who had a 15-year age gap between them, met when Garcia was 16. Prince eventually took her under his wing before marrying her. They were together for several years before solemnizing their relationship. They welcomed their son Amir in October 1996, the year they got married, and he was ecstatic until he learned that his son has a condition that would end his life prematurely.
After their fairytale wedding, they were ecstatic to be parents but their child was born with severe genetic defects, according to Irish Times. Their son lived only a week. "I felt a sense of failure, of, ‘What did I do?', of anger, disbelief, shock. I didn't want to confront it or deal with it. It has to be a blur for me to keep moving forward, but it's in my heart and I'll always feel it and I'll always have a sense of compassion and respect for people who go through that," Garcia told Irish News.
A few weeks later when they went on an interview with Oprah, they didn't open up about their tragedy. "It’s all good, never mind what you hear," Prince said. Garcia says, "I can watch it now and see the beauty in it and see how he was really trying to be strong and be positive. At the time I just remember thinking, just don’t say anything that’s gonna make me cry."
They didn't give up hope and tried again. "At first, we helped each other," she says, as per Irish News. "He went on tour and I got healthy. We were together and we tried again," she added.
Her first trimester during the second pregnancy went well, but during the second trimester, things took a turn for the worse. "I went into the bathroom and found blood seeping out of me. It felt like a long walk to the telephone," writes Garcia in her book The Most Beautiful, according to Daily Mail. She was only 24 at the time and when she called her husband to tell him what had happened, he had no words to comfort her.
She had miscarried, her doctors confirmed, and that broke their marriage completely. When she saw him and told him the news, he only said he has to go to the studio. He became distant and ignored her during this difficult time, so she went to see her mother looking for comfort. A week later, she was still bleeding and getting concerned about her health, reports Daily Mail. Her doctor told her she needed to get a procedure to remove the lining of her uterus but Prince refused to go with her. He also told her she shouldn't do it.
"Nature will take its course if you let it," said Prince according to Garcia. "Either we have faith or we don't," he added.
Instead of taking his advice, she got the procedure done to save her own life. But, not before she begged him to come with her. "I don't believe in what you're doing," he told his wife. Prince had converted to Jehova's Witness by then and seeking medical care didn't align with his religious beliefs.
Their relationship didn't recover from these tragedies and they signed the divorce papers in 2000. She went on to adopt her daughter, Gia, in 2013 and wanted to meet Prince to tell him about being a mom.
"Unfortunately, I heard later on from people that his ego was too big and he just didn't want to face me or something. I don't think he was in a good place. I wanted to go tell him that I loved him, and I wanted him to meet my daughter Gia and see how motherhood has changed me. I just would have told him that I was always going to be there for him, no matter what," she told InStyle.
Prince died in 2016 and never had any other kids.
References:
https://www.instyle.com/reviews-coverage/what-prince-was-really-behind-closed-doors
