Hopeless romantic? Mariah Carey has had many ups and downs in the romance department, but she’s learned from each of her past relationships.
The “We Belong Together” singer has been married two times and engaged a third time. Her first marriage to music executive Tommy Mottola, who is 21 years her senior, is something she looks back on with somewhat negative feelings.
“You might want to picture a child bride,” Carey told Cosmopolitan in July 2019, about the relationship, which began at the same time her career really started in the early ‘90s. “There was a conscious effort to keep me as this all-American, whatever that means, girl. It was very controlled. There was no freedom for me as a human being. It was almost like being a prisoner.”
The Precious actress shut down reports of rumored romances with Derek Jeter and Eminem in that same interview, when she claimed to have only been in a handful of serious sexual relationships in her life.
“I haven’t had that many, but there has been a variety pack,” Carey told Cosmopolitan. “I’ve only been with five people in my life, so I’m kind of a prude, honestly, compared to most others in the field.”
Her six-year marriage to Nick Cannon, with whom she shares twins Moroccan and Monroe, and short-lived engagement to Australian businessman James Packer, are included in that number. As was her time with singer Luis Miguel and her on-again, off-again romance with Bryan Tanaka.
While she’d previously denied a romance with Jeter, in August 2020 the Grammy winner talked about the time she spent with the MLB star.
“I can never forget that moment,” she recalled of her 1997 introduction to the former New York Yankees player, confirming to Vulture that the duo drank Moët champagne, which is featured as a lyric in her 1997 song “The Roof.”
She added: “I mean, it’s not like it was some intensely deep, intellectually stimulating — again, it was a great moment.”
Scroll down to see which famous faces the singer has been linked to over the years.