Prince's love story: Who was his 'future wife' Mayte García and why his son's tragic death led to divorce
The world knows him by the name Prince, but did you know why he was named so? Born on June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was named so by his jazz singer mother Mattie Della and pianist father John Lewis Nelson because he wanted Prince “to do everything I wanted to do," by his own admission.
It's quite surprising that Prince was not fond of his name. In fact, throughout his childhood, he urged people to call him Skipper. With a career spanning four decades, he had ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles. The musician's skill to mingle erotic lyrics with funk rock, especially with songs like 'Sexy M F' and 'I Wanna Melt With U' was quite a rage.
Not just his professional life, his personal life was chockablock with fascinating stories. From Madonna to Carmen Electra and Kim Basinger to Susanna Hoffs, he has been linked to several beauties and singer-songwriters he collaborated with. However, his first love story is an enigma in itself. It is believed that in 1990, he locked eyes with 16-year-old Mayte García outside his tour bus, and told Rosie Gaines, “There's my future wife.”
And it wasn't one-sided. Much later, García confessed that she told her mother when she was just nine, "'I'm going to marry Prince or Luis Miguel. One of the two.'”
In no time, García joined him as one of his backup singers and dancers. Despite a 15-year age difference, sparks flew and the couple got hitched on February 14, 1996; when she was 22 and he was 37. They were blessed with a son named Amiir Nelson on October 16, 1996, but he died a week later due to a rare genetic disorder, Pfeiffer syndrome. The loss of their child and another miscarriage left their marriage in shambles. Unable to cope up with the grief, the pair decided to split in the year 2000.
In an interview with The Current, she later opened up about the struggle and said, “Unfortunately when couples lose, women and men deal with it in a different way,” said Garcia. “It’s hard. We never had problems before that. You start to question yourself and the other person. Communication is so important.”
The way both handled the major loss affected them. While García embraced silence, Prince poured all his passion into his music. “Before, I couldn’t even talk about it,” she said, “I would have a knot in my throat. A lot of people feel a sense of failure that affects them throughout the years.”
Shedding light on 'Comeback' — the song he wrote for their son, Amiir, — she added, “It was hard to listen to it for many years, but now I can. When I first heard it, I thought it was amazing and beautiful. I told [Prince] that I could smell [Amiir], and he used that in the beautiful lyrics that he wrote. He would put his emotions in his songs […] I hear intense sadness, but with that sadness, for me now, I acknowledge it, and turn it into something positive.”
Prince's song, 'Way Back Home' also brings back memories of her son. Of the song, she said, “If you listen to it, the rhythm sounds like a heartbeat,” adding, “It made me realize that he hadn’t forgotten about him. I think that the loss was intense for him. I can’t speak for him, but I definitely know that it affected him. If you listen to that song, you will hear it. I am not saying it is his heartbeat, but there is no way he is not thinking about him in that song.”
In a memoir titled 'The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince', that was released exactly a year after the icon's death, she made several revelations about his life. She shared how they were “old-school pen-pals” at first and how he would influence her wardrobe, “I only wore skirts because he would take all my pants!.”
García continues to honor Prince after his death. To pay tribute to the artist, a new special 'Let's Go Crazy: The GRAMMY Salute To Prince' will be broadcast Tuesday, April 21, 2020, from 9 pm to 11 pm ET on CBS.