Prince’s Biggest Tragedy: The Death Of His Week Old Baby Boy

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This is so incredibly sad. Prince achieved a lot of incredible milestones during his lifetime, but he also suffered one horrible heartbreak — the death of his newborn son. Boy Gregory was born in October, but died just seven days after his birth. Find out all the details here.

Even if you’re one of Prince‘s biggest fans, you may not have known that he actually had a child. But sadly, his baby boy named Boy Gregory died just seven days after his birth in October 1996. It was such a heartbreaking loss that even the late singer’s ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, believes it broke their marriage.

During an interview with The Mirror last year, Mayte revealed she suffered a miscarriage not long after the death of their baby boy. “To lose two babies is really scary… it really caught on me emotionally, physically, everything. It took me at least 15 years to get over it and still, to this day, I miss my son. I believe a child dying between a couple either makes you stronger or it doesn’t. For me, it was very, very hard to move forward and for us as a couple I think it probably broke us,” she said.

According to the Star Tribune, Boy Gregory was 7 pounds, 12 ounces, when he was born and he died from complications of Pfeiffer syndrome, which is a rare birth defect. The U.S. National Library of Science characterizes the syndrome as “a genetic disorder characterized by the premature fusion of certain skull bones (craniosynostosis). This early fusion prevents the skull from growing normally and affects the shape of the head and face.”

At the time, no one really knew about Boy Gregory’s birth or death. The singer never released the information, but it was later leaked by his two sisters, who were working for him at the time. They were later fired and sued by him for breach of confidentiality, according to E! News.

Prince and Mayte actually gave Oprah a tour of their house one week after Boy Gregory’s death on Oct. 23, 1996, and when she asked about the status of Mayte’s pregnancy, Prince said, “Well, our family exists. We’re just beginning it. And we’ve got many kids to have, a long way to go.”

Prince and Mayte divorced in 1999. The singer, who died on April 21, 2016, was married a second time, but never had anymore children.

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HollywoodLifers, isn’t this the saddest news you’ve ever heard?