On the 10th anniversary of his death, Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia is opening up about the moment she discovered the legendary musician had fatally overdosed.
“[April] 21 was a horrible day,” Garcia, 52, who was married to Prince from 1996 to 2000, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I was driving. I got called, and I don’t know how I drove home.”
She recalled that once she made it to a safe place, she went outside in disbelief.
“I don’t know how many nos I said,” Garcia remembered. “It’s something that we are all going to have to deal with, losing somebody we love, but it was really hard, and I didn’t want it to be true.”
The dancer struggled with the loss, noting that while the world mourned the superstar’s death, she suffered a personal sorrow.
“It was an intense sadness. An intense sadness, that’s all I can remember of losing him,” she told Us. “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.”
When asked whether Prince would have been pleased with the impact his legacy had on fans, Garcia responded, “He knew how powerful his presence was, but I think he would have still been shocked and humbled. He was very, very humble. And I think he would have kind of grinned at it happening.”
Prince died on April 21, 2016, at 57 years old after suffering an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park home.
On Tuesday, Live 4 Love Charities, the nonprofit Garcia started with Prince in 1996, is hosting a Glam Slam Benefit in the “Purple Rain” singer’s honor. The event will celebrate the musician’s cultural and philanthropic impact with performances by Paisley Park alumni, including special guests including Taylor Dayne and Sheila E.
Garcia and Prince founded the organization focused on arts education, youth empowerment and community healing in memory of their son, Amiir.
The pair welcomed Amiir on October 16, 1996. He died of a rare genetic disorder days later.
Garcia, once Prince’s backup dancer, tied the knot with The Purple One earlier that year. They divorced in 2000.
While she has addressed Amiir’s death publicly, even writing about the tragedy in her memoir, The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, her ex-husband never did.
“It was how he handled it, and I respected that,” Garcia told Good Morning America in 2017 while promoting the book. “It was really hard, but it was also very liberating and healing [to write about it] because for so many years I held it in. [I know] when we lost Amiir, I read a lot of books that helped me, and I’m hoping that somebody will read this and that it will help them as well.”
Years after their divorce, Garcia adopted a daughter named Gia. Prince went on to marry Manuela Testolini, a Canadian businesswoman, in 2001. They split in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
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