Mayte Garcia

Lore & Background

Garcia was born on November 12, 1973, at Fort Rucker, Alabama, an army base. Her parents are both of Puerto Rican descent. Her father John was a United States military pilot, and her mother Janelle (also known as Nelly) was a dancer. Garcia and her older sister, Janice, grew up in Germany and the United States.

She spent summers of her childhood with her extended family in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She began belly dancing at age three. On May 12, 1981, at 7 years old, Garcia appeared on the American television program That's Incredible! as the world's youngest professional belly dancer. As a teenager, she became a prima ballerina with the Wiesbaden Ballet.

She graduated from General H.H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany. Garcia came to the attention of Prince in 1990 when her mother submitted a video cassette of Garcia's performance to a dancer in hopes they would pass the tape on to Prince. Prince met Garcia within minutes after viewing the video while on tour in Germany. She became a member of the New Power Generation from 1992 to 1996.

In 1995, Prince produced an album for her, titled Child of the Sun. Garcia and Prince married on February 14, 1996. Their only child, Amiir, was born with Pfeiffer syndrome type 2 on October 16, 1996, and died six days after his birth. They divorced in 2000.

Garcia later dated drummer Tommy Lee and was engaged to him in 2002, ending the engagement in 2003. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her daughter Gia, whom she adopted in 2013. Garcia has multiple sclerosis, with symptoms beginning in 2010.

Reader's Guide

Mayte Garcia is known for her work as a dancer with Prince and the New Power Generation, her role in the film Dus (2005), and her reality TV appearance on Hollywood Exes. She released a book in 2017 titled The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince.