Photo from Facebook/@onlygarcias
Patrick Garcia has offered a new, detailed account of his 2008 breakup with Jennylyn Mercado, revisiting a relationship that became the subject of intense public attention while Mercado was pregnant with their son.
In a Sept. 29 interview with entertainment host Ogie Diaz, Garcia said he decided to speak at length about the past after Michelle, his eldest daughter with wife Nikka Martinez, told him that negative comments about him were appearing in the comment sections of Michelle’s social media posts. Garcia said the continuing criticism directed at him had also affected his family.
Garcia and Mercado were a couple when they announced Mercado’s pregnancy in January 2008. Their relationship unraveled soon afterward, and Mercado publicly confirmed the breakup the following month.
At the time, Mercado said she felt she was not receiving the emotional support she needed during her pregnancy and expressed hurt over a televised interview in which Garcia was asked a hypothetical question about the baby’s paternity.
Garcia now recalls that exchange differently. He said he understood the question as hypothetical and answered that he would still care for the child even if the child were not biologically his. According to Garcia, Mercado and her family took the answer as evidence that he doubted the pregnancy.
Garcia said he tried to contact Mercado after the disagreement and later asked to be informed about medical appointments so he could be involved in the pregnancy. Mercado’s account at the time differed, including her assertion that she had sought greater emotional support from him.
Garcia also addressed the breakup publicly in 2008, denying that he had abandoned Mercado and later saying he learned through television that she considered their relationship over.
Mercado gave birth to their son, Alex Jazz, on Aug. 16, 2008. The former couple later established communication around their son.
Garcia married former actress Nikka Martinez in 2015, and they have four children together.
Mercado had not publicly responded to Garcia’s latest account.
