Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia opened up about a topic that both she and Prince have largely kept quiet about: the tragic death of their son just one week after his birth back in 1996.
The 42-year-old dancer recalled the pain the pair went through during Single Mom’s Planet’s “Single Mom’s Awards” in Los Angeles on Friday, May 7.
“Like most women, I always dreamt of becoming a mother,” she began, according to Access Hollywood. “It just wasn’t my time yet. After that, I was broken. And I lost hope. I basically gave up my dream of becoming a mom.”
Garcia and the late “Purple Rain” singer welcomed son Boy Gregory in October 1996, but the baby died just one week later of Pfieffer syndrome.
She and the music icon tied the knot earlier that year, but a miscarriage and the baby’s death led to their eventual split in June 2000.
Garcia later made a decision that would change her life: She agreed to costar on VH1’s Hollywood Exes, an experience that led to her adopting a baby girl, her daughter, Gia, after a viewer reached out and offered to arrange for the adoption.
“For years my marriage to Prince was mine,” she said Friday, of her initial doubts about doing the show. “The idea of exposing myself to the world … was terrifying. [But] I will never regret being a part of it because the show served as therapy for me.”
The single mom adopted Gia in 2013, and she credits the reality show for bringing them together.
“I fell in love … with that baby girl,” Garcia said. “Five years later, she is my greatest gift.”
On Friday, a Minnesota judge authorized the use of Prince’s blood for DNA tests should anyone step forward trying to claim inheritance of the late musician’s estate.
He died on April 21 without a valid will.
