Mariah Carey opened up about her tumultuous marriage to her first husband, Tommy Mottola, revealing that she still felt "angry" about their time together almost three decades after their divorce.
In a candid interview with Harper's Bazaar UK, the hitmaker shared insight into their five-year marriage, and explained how she learned to cope with the fallout of their relationship.
Love and heartbreak
Tommy first met Mariah in 1991 when she was a young backup singer and he was the head of Columbia Records; despite their 21-year age gap, they went on to tie the knot in 1993 when she was just 23.
Her career took off during their marriage, with the release of hits like "Hero", "Fantasy", "Always Be My Baby" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You" skyrocketing her to fame.
Speaking to the publication about their turbulent relationship, Mariah shared that she was still working to move past her anger years later.
"Sometimes I feel angry about that time, but I think I've made peace with it – in any case, I vowed I'd stop talking about it," she said.
"Humor is my release, and people who know me know that. I'll make little jokes about what happened because otherwise, I could make every day a sob story. It's a coping mechanism, but it's in my nature to laugh."
She added that Tommy wanted her to remain a pop princess, while Mariah was ready to spread her wings and explore different genres.
"I wanted to do more R&B, more urban music, and any time I would bring that up, it would get shot down. It wasn't that I didn't like the music I was making – I just felt there was more inside me that I wanted to release," the 56-year-old recalled.
The performer shared that she felt "free for the first time" after the release of her 1997 album Butterfly, which came shortly before their separation.
Holding back
Mariah also revealed in the interview that Tommy had shielded her from fame for years, so much so that she didn't realize her popularity until a Thanksgiving performance in New York opened her eyes.
She noticed that security was struggling to control the crowd as she performed her set, which was "shocking" for the star. "Nobody had ever told me, 'Hey, these people are outside the store, and they all want to buy your record,'" Mariah said.
She had previously been honest about her time with Tommy, and likened herself to a "child bride" in a 2019 interview with Cosmopolitan.
"There was a conscious effort to keep me as this all-American, whatever that means, girl. It was very controlled," she said. "There was no freedom for me as a human being. It was almost like being a prisoner."
Tommy speaks out
For his part, the record executive has always denied Mariah's claims of his controlling ways and set the record straight in his 2013 memoir Hitmaker: The Man and His Music.
He admitted that their romance was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate", and added that he was "truly sorry for any discomfort or pain that all of my good intentions inevitably caused her".
Tommy declared that her characterization of him was "harsh" and "untrue" and denied that he tried to control her.
Mariah moved on with Derek Jeter after her divorce, then enjoyed a series of flings before marrying TV personality Nick Cannon in 2008. They went on to welcome twins Moroccan and Monroe before parting ways in 2016.
The Grammy winner was then briefly engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer in 2016, then dated her backup dancer, Bryan Tanaka, on and off between 2016 and 2023.
To learn more about Mariah's children with Nick, watch below...