From tele
With this pink, fairytale love palace...
(Filed: 05/06/2004)


Pop star Prince's wedding gift to his former wife was a predictably flamboyant and eccentric affair. Sarah Lonsdale reports from Marbella

As love tokens go, it's not at all bad. Most women would probably be happy with a bunch of flowers or box of chocs from their husband; on bigger occasions, a teensy weensy diamond might not go amiss. But the gift bestowed upon Mayte Garcia by her besotted husband is a bit more than even a diamond: a fairytale villa that looks as though it was fashioned out of spun sugar, nestling in the lush hills above Marbella in southern Spain.


Fit for a Prince: the villa in El Paraiso that sealed Prince's wedding to Mayte Garcia in 1996
True, it might be a tad theatrical for some people's taste: Gone With the Wind-type colonial staircase sweeping into a sugar-candy pink entrance hall sparkling with chandeliers; huge, sunken marble bath with gold taps and, my oh my, the bedroom - it's enough to make those of a prudish temperament squirm with embarrassment.

Some bedrooms are for sleeping in and others are for doing other things in - and this one is definitely for the latter. The bed is enormous and swagged with harem-style, white, muslin, floaty curtains falling from gold- tasselled pelmets - although the word pelmet is just far too, well, suburban and reminiscent of the John Lewis soft furnishings department to do this bed justice.

Above the bed, a huge ceiling-mounted mirror gazes down at whoever is not sleeping on the exotic bed linen below. The headboard provides us with a clue as to the identity of the fun-loving owners of the bed. Hand-painted, it depicts a golden desert scene beneath an azure sky, framed by towering palm trees. On the horizon are the pyramids of Egypt and walking hand in hand towards them across the sand are two diminutive figures, the perfectly-formed husband and wife who bought the house together.

Anyone familiar with 1980s and 1990s pop music will immediately recognise the strange squiggle - half-Arabic script, half-scientific symbol - picked out in black above the deep end of the swimming pool. For a few years, this symbol identified the Artist Formerly known as Prince, now plain Prince again, who bought this villa for his then wife, Mayte, in 1998.

The couple moved into the villa, in the El Paraiso district of Marbella two years after they married on Valentine's Day 1996 and although the then snowy white, colonial-influenced love-nest was practically perfect, it was not quite to the Prince of pop's ebullient taste.

"Prince chose the pink for the exterior and interior," says Mayte, a dancer and singer who met Prince when she was 16. "He loves pinks and purples and I think the pale pink looks very fresh in the house. He insisted on putting the mirror above the bed, but a lot of the Arabic influences are mine."

Mayte, a Puerto Rican and immortalised as The Most Beautiful Girl in the World in Prince's 1994 song, has been a belly dancer since she was three years old and has performed in front of several members of the royal houses of the Middle East.

"I influenced Prince a lot in the whole Arabic sound and look," she says. "I wanted the drapes around the bed because I like sleeping with the windows open, but I didn't want the bugs coming in and biting me. The painted headboard is to symbolise the mystical journey we were on together - we are both very interested in Egyptian history and religion."

Although Prince has recently turned to fundamental Christianity, the bed represents a more eclectic period of his spiritual quest.

Elsewhere, Prince converted a small room into a professional hair salon complete with indented washbasin, huge mirrors and hair-drying equipment. "Prince always travelled with his personal hairdresser in those days and he paid a lot of attention to his hair," recalls Mayte. "He would spend a lot of time in the salon."

Mayte says the villa was a perfect, peaceful retreat for her and her superstar husband. Certainly, it appears to have inspired him creatively as he wrote most of the songs for Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic - one of his most critically acclaimed albums - while chilling out in Marbella.

"But I've also had a lot of parties here," says Mayte, who, after her marriage to Prince was annulled in 2000, was briefly linked with ageing bad-boy rocker Tommy Lee. "You can't help but have fun in this house."

The gardens of this exclusive and private villa are carefully landscaped to restrict prying eyes and zoom lenses while serried ranks of perfectly manicured cypresses stand guard around the property.

Any purchaser of the villa will be presented with a thorny problem if the flamboyant, Moorish style is not to their taste. Does one redecorate and thus erase evidence of Prince's previous ownership, or does one preserve it and thus, in years to come, make the house a place of pilgrimage for pop historians?

Fortunately, it is not a question that I myself have to wrestle with, as the €3.7 million (£2.5 million) price tag puts it slightly out of my wallet's capacity.

Although the pair were happy for a few years, the marriage did not last and they went their separate ways in 2000.

Now, Mayte is selling the villa to concentrate on her acting and dancing career in Los Angeles.

• The villa in El Paraiso, Marbella, Spain is on sale through Aylesford. Contact 020 7351 2383 for further details.

I always thought that place looked too damn glitzy.

Her house is worth 3.7 but Manuela stands to Gain a 5 million one and MAYTE HAD his Child? Kinda UNFAIR huh ?.....Prince gotta keep Toronto as his even if they break up. He Cannot keep giving away houses. He's Not TRUMP...
[This message was edited Mon Jun 7 21:17:14 2004 by Zelaira]

I think the house sounds beautiful but I think it would be such a bittersweet place for Mayte to hold on to. Like a graveyard. It's definitely time to let it change hands.

Maybe she'll buy one in LA instead.

Maybe she'll buy one in LA instead.

I wish her only the best.

dayuumm wish I had some money

That house looks beautiful, it's a shame that he gave it 2 mayte...
i used 2 love mayte but after the r no longer 2gether, now i kinda hate her!!!
she's a bitch!!!!!

ThePurpleHippie said:

Just because she and Prince are no longer together, you hate her and think she's a bitch?

Wow.

What if Prince and Mani were to break up? Would you hate her then too, just because her relationship with Prince ended?

Does any one have any pics of the place besides the one in the gallery? Also..a bit off topic, but is Paisley Park still around? Isn't it being sold/demolished?

Boy is Mayte a strong woman. totally understand her situation as 2 y she's selling the mansion. The place sounds absolutely dreamy and beautiful, but know it gotta suck walking from room 2 room remembering the good and the bad things that had happened there during the years of their marriage. know that she's probably heart broken too.

Well, as Prince says, "ALL GOOD THINGS THEY SAY NEVER LAST".

""I influenced Prince a lot in the whole Arabic sound and look," she says. "I wanted the drapes around the bed because I like sleeping with the windows open, but I didn't want the bugs coming in and biting me. The painted headboard is to symbolise the mystical journey we were on together - we are both very interested in Egyptian history and religion.""

sooooo.....she invented mosquito netting? And if anything, the Symbol cd and era suffered for having been about her so much. Prince favorite song at the time must have been "Head Over Heels."

I love how individuals with no real sense of creativity...I mean, she can definitely dance, but to say that she "influenced" this, or "created" that...c'mon. And now she's going to "concentrate on her acting and dancing career in Los Angeles?" She can't fucking sing! Good lord! Isn't she just doing make-up shoots now? And her other claim to 15 mins of fame....what was it now...oh yeah. Tommy fucking Lee?
Yeah, she's a strong woman. And I'm Prince's guitar tech. Oops.

superspaceboy said:

i have a small pic from the article but dont know how to post it

BlackandRising said:

She is definitely a strong woman. She gave birth to a child that died and then sat on national television very shortly thereafter with a smile on her face, proclaiming that her baby was fine.

That is a strong woman, no matter what you say.

TheBigBang said:

Ummm....there are plenty of women that go through this and more every day. They're women. I don't put Mayte on a pedestal simply because she went on TV and discussed her tragedy. If you love her because you think she's strong due to that, more power to ya. But, in reality, millions go through much worse on a daily basis, and get no dap for it. That's strong.

She was DEVESTATED is RIGHT. The Strange thing is why did she Still have the Baby if the SONOGRAM showed something wrong. Wouldn't it Show that? Yes, they Had to Know there was something wrong. Why did she go through with the Pregnancy? Did someone Think Abortion was Wrong? The Baby was Deformed. Mayte is Not a Bitch. She went through alot of Pain. I know Prince got Hurt also but I wouldn't call Mayte a Bitch ever. Mayte went through alot. Give her a Break. I don't think Prince is the Kind of Person to Hate People. Let us not Hate either.

Zelaira said:

Who called her a bitch? And what in God's name are you rambling on about? Why are you capitalizing hate? In fact, why are you sporadically capitalizing words throughout your post? Is there some meaning in this? Your post raises so many questions. But it's funny as well.

BlackandRising said:

Zelaira.....no offense, cause everyone has a voice in here....but, DAYUM, are you for real?? wow.....there are peeps that can help ya know!!!!

Zelaira said:


Because they didn't want 2 have an echography or a sonogram done, they wanted that child 2 b a surprise, and it WAS a surprise, indeed I think it's awful 4 a young woman to give birth to a diformed child... I understand her, and i understand why their marriage failed.

by the way, this article can be found at www.telegraph.co.uk - working on the specific URL, but ya need to sign up to view stories, so...workin' on that.

The house is a toilet.

Right???!!!
.

Purple Hippie called Mayte a Bitch first off secondly They showed a picture of Mayte's stomach then sampled the heartbeat in Sex In The Summer remember? Are ya telling me there was No Sonogram? I Can't believe they didn't have a Sonogram. Oh My God Really?

If this posts correctly, here is the link to view pictures...you can see the symbol on the outside of the third picture.

http://aylesford.webdadi....s&index=27

Also, the picture on the bedroom wall...can anyone tell if it is Prince or Mayte???

Creame said:

My friend, she simply cannot afford the real estate taxes. Plain and simple.

What a Gorgeous house. Prince has the Most Gorgeous Taste on things.

asg said:

Anyone else find this funny?

oops... apparently someone does. sorry langebleu - i noticed your post only afterwards.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 8 0:35:13 2004 by prinssi]

Zelaira said:

Where, where?