Mayte Garcia was married to “The Purple One” from 1996 to 2000.

Prince’s ex-wife looks back on learning he died, 10 years after the visionary musician’s death

Mayte Garcia was married to "The Purple One" from 1996 to 2000.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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April 22, 2026 2:19 a.m. ET

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Prince and Mayte Garcia in 1999. Credit:

Kevin Mazur/Getty

- Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia said she learned of his 2016 death on a phone call when she was driving.

- Garcia was married to the 'Purple Rain' singer between 1996 and 2000, after working as a backup dancer on his tour.

- While they were no longer together, Garcia said the loss of Prince brought about "an intense sadness."

Ten years after the death of music icon Prince, on April 21, 2016, his ex-wife Mayte Garcia is remembering how she learned the devastating news.

"I was driving," Garcia told *Us Weekly*. "I got called, and I don't know how I drove home."

She said that, when she had a moment, she broke down.

"I don't know how many nos I said. It's something that we are all going to have to deal with, losing somebody we love, but it was really hard," Garcia said, "and I didn't want it to be true."

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Garcia had married the Grammy winner on Feb. 14, 1996, after having met him when she was a 16-year-old belly dancer. Her mother had passed on a tape of Garcia performing to Prince's team at one of his concerts.

By the time Garcia was 18, she had joined the "Raspberry Beret" artist on tour as a backup dancer. She moved into his Minnesota estate, Paisley Park.

Prince performs in 2009.

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty

"First we became friends, then we became pen pals," Garcia explained to the *Wall Street Journal* in April 2017. "And then I sort of became his muse without knowing. Then we fell in love, and then we got married. It was a beautiful romance. I like to say a fairytale because it was so romantic and magical."

The couple welcomed a son, Amiir, later in 1996, but he lived for just six days. They founded the organization Live 4 Love Charities for their lost son. Her pregnancy two years later ended in a miscarriage.

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While Garcia and Prince divorced in 2000, she still had love for her ex when he died of an accidental drug overdose at 57. His death brought "an intense sadness," she said in the new interview.

"That's all I can remember of losing him. And then I remember, I mean, I've heard because I couldn't watch TV and my phone was going off the hook, just the monuments. They lit it purple and they honored him, which was, at the time, it was really hard to accept, but I thought that was very impactful," she said.

Gracia said she thought Prince, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, would have been delighted to know how deeply he affected his fans.

"He knew how powerful his presence was, but I think he would have still been shocked and humbled," she said. "He was very, very humble. And I think he would have kind of grinned at it happening."

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