Prince's ex-wife doesn't buy Sinead O'Connor's claims he was violent toward women and abused hard drugs ... because she never saw a shred of evidence to support that.
Mayte Garcia -- who was married to Prince from 1996 to 2000 -- tells TMZ he was never violent with her and she never witnessed him being violent with anyone ... man or woman. She also says he didn't do hard drugs while they were together, and she only saw him drunk once.
Garcia's very skeptical of Sinead's self-proclaimed close relationship with Prince ... telling us she seriously doubts she could have known more than she did.
Mayte has a problem with the timing of Sinead's allegations, too ... because Prince wasn't alive to defend himself.
Garcia admits she found the reports of Prince's deadly pill stash shocking and heartbreaking, because she knew him for years and didn't see anything like that.
But as for O'Connor's most outrageous claim -- that Prince was into devil worship -- Garcia simply calls BS. She says he was spiritual and religious, but any claims of him doing something sinister are "ridiculously wrong" ... adding, "I strongly deny that in his honor."