Publication: London Daily Telegraph [UK]
Date: December 19, 1998
Section: Page 21
Length: 446 words
Title: "Change Again From The Artist Formerly Known As Married"
Written By: Jessica Callan

YOU CAN always count on the Artist formerly known as Prince to keep up the weekly weirdness quota. After changing his name from plain old Prince Rogers Nelson to Prince, then TAFKAP, followed by an unpronounceable symbol that everyone decided to pronounce as Squiggle, before finally resting on the Artist, it would be fair to say he isn't fond of the constraints of everyday life.

Now the union between the 40-year-old pop personality and his Puerto Rican dancer wife, Mayte Garcia, 25, is coming to an end. But not for long. The music oddity has announced that he is annulling his three-year marriage to Mayte because he does not believe in any "contract held by social conventions".

The tiny purple one, who stands at 5ft 4in and boasts about surviving on three hours of sleep a night, said this week that contracts "are made by man to guarantee the possibility of divorce".

"Mayte and I are joined for life, and the best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that people demand.

"Conventional marriage ceremonies are totally counter to our beliefs."

So instead of the traditional "I do" thing, the Artist formerly known as married says he and Mayte plan to be rejoined in a "symbolic" ceremony set for Valentine's Day next year in Spain. The odd couple originally got hitched in February 1996 in Minneapolis.

The Artist has never been too trusting of people who sign contracts, whether it is for employment purposes, marriage or music.

During their now-defunct union, the Artist and Mayte had a son who, sadly, died in November 1996 a week after his birth from complications caused by Pfeiffer's Syndrome, a rare bone disorder that causes the skull to harden and not expand. After just one week of life and two operations, the Artist and Mayte decided to turn off his life-support machine.

The devastating news of their son's death was made worse by the story sold to the press by the couple's nanny and bodyguard, which in turn prompted a police investigation.

The Artist has never been big on contracts that he has signed either. He had a serious blow-up with his record company, Warner Bros, three years ago and performed at concerts with the word "Slave" scrawled across his cheek in protest against his self-proclaimed lack of freedom from the firm.

He now has his own label, NPG (New Power Generation), which he claims doesn't use contracts.

In fact, he is so upset with his former label that he is re-recording his 1982 smash hit 1999 - the ready-made theme song for the Millennium, with its chorus "Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999" - and encouraging fans to buy the new version, not Warners' competing re-release.