AceShowbiz - Mariah Carey's billionaire ex-fiance James Packer was spirited away to Israel by associates in a successful attempt to prevent him marrying the star.

The "Touch My Body" hitmaker and James got engaged in January 2016 after a whirlwind romance - and were reportedly planning to wed soon after.

A new biography of the Australian business mogul, "The Price of Fortune: The Untold Story of Being James Packer", details how associates of James grounded his plane in Israel just weeks before the planned wedding as they feared he was rushing into marriage at a time when he was struggling mentally with the pressure of mounting business debts.

"Mariah was very upset when I was in Israel because I had just disappeared," James told the book's author Damon Kitney, according to British newspaper The Times.

Media tycoon Kerry Stokes revealed in the book that he was behind the plan to postpone the wedding, grounding James' plane for maintenance in Israel and insisting his friend took time out to consider his future.

"I did postpone his wedding," he explained. "We did have issues at the time because Mariah's agent was most insistent they would not be separated and the wedding take place. James was upset at not seeing (Mariah) but he wasn't sure."

Kerry even claimed that Mariah's team threatened to call the police after accusing him of kidnapping James, and discussed flying her from Las Vegas, where she had a residency, to Israel.

James, 51, who returned to the singer's side after his disappearing act before they broke up in October 2016, insists that the problems with the engagement were not due to her.

"I was at a low point in my personal life," he told his biographer. "Mariah is a woman of substance. She is very bright. But it was a mistake for her and a mistake for me."

Following their split, James is reported to have paid Mariah a "multimillion-dollar settlement" after the singer sought an "inconvenience fee" from her ex for the break-up.

The casino entrepreneur checked into a psychiatric hospital this March, but has since returned to his home in Los Angeles.