Prince’s first wife, Mayte Garcia, has shared the tragic details about the couple’s son, Amiir, who died six days after he was born in October 1996.
“I don’t think he ever got over it,” Garcia writes in her upcoming memoir, an excerpt from which ran in last week’s People magazine. “I don’t know how anybody can get over it. I know I haven’t.”
Garcia, who was 22 at the time, reports her pregnancy was going well until she began bleeding one day. Her doctor recommended amniocentesis to test for genetic abnormalities, but warned it came with the risk of miscarriage.
“Sometimes the body is trying to release the fetus for a reason,” the doctor told them, but Prince didn’t want to take the risk. Instead, the couple went home and prayed. “Please, bless this child,” Prince said while on his knees. “We know you won’t allow this child to be harmed.”
A later ultrasound revealed further complications and the possibility of dwarfism. Garcia writes that the couple were OK with the possibility. Said Prince: “And?… I’m totally fine with that.” Added Garcia: “I laughed. Of all the possible outcomes that had been offered to us, this was the first one that didn’t terrify me.”
Amiir was ultimately delivered via C-section. “I don’t know how to describe the look on my husband’s face. Pure joy,” she writes. “And then they held the baby up to those harsh lights. … The elation on my husband’s face turned to pure terror.”
The baby suffered from the rare genetic disorder Pfeiffer syndrome, which causes premature fusion of bones in the skull and abnormal limbs. He was born with his eyes outside the sockets and hands and feet with a webbed, paw-like appearance. “He was curled on his side, gasping shallow little gulps of air,” Garcia writes. “Because there were no lids to blink, his eyes looked startled and dry. I caught hold of his tiny hand, saying over and over, ‘Mama loves you, Mama’s here.’ ”
The shocked parents did their best to comfort the baby, but after several procedures, he was still struggling to breathe. He died six days later. Garcia suffered a miscarriage the following year and the couple divorced in 2000.
Prince addressed his son in several songs on his album “Emancipation,” and used a recording of the child’s heartbeat as percussion in the track “Sex in the Summer,” although he rarely discussed him after that. Garcia said she later learned Prince had his assistant burn everything that reminded him of her and their baby.
Prince died in April from an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl. In an interview with People, Garcia said: “I never actually saw Prince doing drugs. He didn’t want me to. I’m sure he knew what my reaction would be.”
Garcia’s book, “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince,” is due out April 4. In a press release announcing it, she said: “For many years, people have encouraged me to share my story. Prince was loved the world over but few knew him intimately. And ours was a rare, almost otherworldly connection. I want to share our love story, and with it the highs and lows – always coming from a loving place, as this man is still part of my family and always will be.”