MIAMI -- Pedro Knight, an accomplished trumpeter and the widower of legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz, has died. He was 85.

The Cuban-American salsero died Saturday morning at a hospital in Arcadia, Calif., said hospital spokesman Tony Yang. Knight suffered for years from diabetes and other ailments, but his family requested that details of his death be kept private.

Relatives planned to release a statement later this week, Yang said.

Knight grew up in Cuba and played trumpet in the rollicking days of Havana in the 1950s with the internationally acclaimed Sonora Matancera, in which Cruz was a singer.

Band members fled Cuba after Fidel Castro's revolution, resettling in 1960 in Miami, and then moving in 1961 to New York. Knight pined for Cruz for years before divulging his crush -- only to have the Latin bombshell reject his initial advance.

"She said musicians had too many women and she didn't want to suffer. And, well, it was true. I had a lot of women. But I told her that if she would have me, she could leave that problem to me," Knight told The Miami Herald in 2004.

The couple wed in 1962. Knight had already given up professional trumpet playing to manage the skyrocketing career of his wife, dubbed the "Queen of Salsa."

Cruz affectionately called the white-maned, mutton-chopped Knight "Cabecita de Algodon," (Cotton Head), and often crooned about their love. She almost never appeared on stage without Knight.

Cruz died from brain cancer in 2003 in her Fort Lee, N.J., home. She was 77.

Knight's physical and mental health declined after her death. He inherited Cruz's multimillion-dollar fortune, but in recent years executors have squabbled over whether Knight was getting his share of the estate and whether the money was being mismanaged.

Last year, according to published reports, Knight was evicted from his home in Palo Alto for defaulting on the $6,050 monthly rent.

Funeral arrangements were being prepared in New York City. Knight is survived by one daughter from a previous marriage, Ernestina Knight of Tampa, Fla.; and four children in Cuba: Pedro, Roberto, Emilia and Gladys.