Prince's Ex-Wife Tells All In New Book
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Prince's first wife, Mayte Garcia, opens up about her private life with the icon in a new book.
"The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince" gives people a glimpse into their relationship, and it sheds light on what kind of man he was.
"I think I did it with love and respect and honor," Garcia said. "The music is great but it was an amazing love story and for me it will be forever."
Garcia says she was going to marry Prince long before she met him, and she did just that in 1996.
The reader learns quirky tidbits about what made him tick.
"He had the best Minnesota accent ever. It's not in the book, but he was a prankster and he would just, we would talk to somebody and he would completely replicate their voice afterward and make me laugh," Garcia said.
It lets people in on what made him one of a kind. She writes about a costume crew who worked inside Paisley Park, where "seamstresses and tailors fit clothing on mannequins with Prince's body size."
"They were always creating something, and he was always looking at magazines and tearing out stuff and liking the sleeves to this, the cut of this pant, the waist line to this," Garcia said.
She says Prince had what she calls a "foo foo master" on staff to go ahead of him and make sure his hotel suite would be a place he could feel at home. It included fluffy area rugs and a grand piano.
"The foo foo was not about a pampered star's outlandish demands; it was about his hydraulic engine being well maintained, fed, and rested enough to pull an entire train," Garcia said in the book.
The memoir also reveals an instance where Prince needed to have his stomach pumped, the emotions surrounding the death of their son, the end of their marriage and how she learned Prince died.
"It was so sudden, it was a shock to all of us," Garcia said.
Writing the book was part of the healing process for Garcia, and she wants the icon's fans to also know another side of him.
"When they close the book I want them to think, 'Wow, that was an amazing love story. He wasn't just a genius, he was a loving, passionate man who was very sensitive,'" Garcia said.
She is currently on a book tour, which is expected to come to Minneapolis this spring. She says Prince always talk about his love for Minnesota.