Prince’s Ex Mayte Garcia Recounts Heartbreaking Loss of Their Son in Detail for First Time

Prince‘s life was one of incredible creativity, inspiration and vibrancy, but it was also marked by wrenching tragedies. Before his own death caused by an overdose, the singer faced an unthinkable tragedy with his ex-wife Mayte Garcia when they lost their son six days after his birth.

Garcia has now revealed intimate and jarring details of their trying pregnancy and the short time they got with baby Amiir.

In her new memoir, The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince, she recounts how happy the couple was when they learned they were expecting a child in 1996. That joy quickly turned to fear when they learned that the baby wasn’t healthy.

Prince refused an amnio, due to the risks, even as it became increasingly clear that something was wrong.

Garcia wrote, “My husband said, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’”

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Eventually the boy, named for the Arabic word for “prince,” was diagnosed with Pfeiffer syndrome type 2, a rare genetic disorder.

Amiir was born in October 1996 and passed away six days later.

“After six days he was struggling to breathe,” Garcia recalled. “And I said to the doctor, ‘He’s not leaving here, is he?’”

Garcia believes the loss of their child changed Prince, as it did her.

“I don’t think he ever got over it,” Garcia told PEOPLE. “I don’t know how anybody can get over it. I know I haven’t.”

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