The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince

Mayte Garcia

Book

It felt weird to call him Prince, so I never did.

Mayte Jannell Garcia was Prince’s wife from 1996 to 2000. The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince, written in the immediate aftermath of his death in 2016, recalls Mayte’s determination as a 16-year-old professional belly dancer, to meet Prince and join his touring band.

In 1985 she moved to Germany to live at a US military base with her Porto Rican family. Then, on a family holiday, in July 1990 they drove to Barcelona to watch Prince perform on his Nude Tour. It was here Mayte’s mother hatched a plan to make a videotape of her daughter dancing and somehow get that to him. Their chance came that August, when the tour was played at Mannheim, Germany and her mother managed to pass Kirk Johnson the tape. The pair kept in touch and once she turned 19, he hired her as a dancer on the Diamonds And Pearls Tour in 1992. Footage from the tape was even edited into Prince’s promo videos of the period. Romance blossomed and at the age of 22 she and Prince (37) married on Valentine’s Day 1996, becoming Mayte Garcia-Nelson. They honeymooned in Hawaii where they also performed three arena shows with the NPG – her final performances with the band as shortly after she quit dancing when falling pregnant.

Mayte was also a talented singer, and while they dated Prince produced her first and only studio album Child Of The Sun. Mayte’s memoir The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince is respectfully and beautifully told in her own words. It begins with her finding out the news of Prince’s death and the emotions she had when first returning to Paisley Park, and the memories of their once family home.

Published in the approach to the first anniversary of Prince’s death, The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince gives an endearing and at times heart-rending insight to the couple’s relationship and tragic loss. She candidly discusses the birth and sudden death of their son Amiir on 23 October 1996, then on 19 November 1997 Mayte suffered a miscarriage of their second child and the resulting strain spiralled their relationship into decline. They moved to Spain in 1998 in the attempt to rekindle their marriage and renewed their wedding vows on 14 February 1999, but in May 2000 the inevitable happened and they divorced. In 2001, Mayte started dating Tommy Lee and in 2002 got engaged, albeit separated in 2003.

The book’s cover shot was captured by photographer and close friend Randee St Nicholas, who convinced Prince he would one day marry Mayte.

Synopses

In The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince, a title inspired by the hit song Prince wrote about their legendary love story, Mayte Garcia for the first time shares the deeply personal story of their relationship and offers a singular perspective on the music icon and their world together: from their unconventional meeting backstage at a concert (and the long-distance romance that followed), to their fairy-tale wedding (and their ground-breaking artistic partnership), to the devastating losses that ultimately dissolved their romantic relationship for good. Throughout it all, they shared a bond more intimate than any other in Prince’s life. No one else can tell this story or can provide a deeper, more nuanced portrait of Prince – both the famously private man and the pioneering, beloved artist – than Mayte, his partner during some of the most pivotal personal and professional years of his career. The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince is a book that will be returned to for decades, as Prince’s music lives on with generations to come.

Data

Author

Mayte Garcia

Publisher

Trapeze

Released

6 April 2017

Format

Hardback

ISBN

978-1409171195

Related Release

Child Of The Sun

Edel

Released

27 November 1995

Format

CD

Mayte’s one and only studio album Child Of The Sun was written and produced by Prince prior to their marriage in February 1996.