In a cover story for Variety's Power of Women issue, the 'Always Be My Baby' hitmaker also recalls her therapist told her she 'had a diva fit' following her alleged breakdown in 2001.
- Oct 9, 2019
AceShowbiz - After years of rumors about her diva behavior, Mariah Carey finally acknowledges it and she totally owns it. In a cover story with Variety for its new Power of Women issue, the R&B superstar talks about her alleged breakdown in 2001.
"It was an emotional and physical breakdown, but it wasn't a nervous breakdown, because you don't recover from that really," she opens up about her emotional turmoil at the time. "And even my therapist was like, 'You didn't have a breakdown; you had a diva fit and people couldn't handle it.' "
The "My All" hitmaker says her downfall was naturally coming because of the pressure of her job. "And what my therapist explained to me, he's like: 'You always try to be such a nice person where you smile, and when you smile everything goes away. Everybody thinks you're fine,' " she explains. "These people are here making money off me; why don't they care if nobody's got an umbrella for me, and it's a sunny shoot? And the minute I was like, 'I'm not fine; I need a day off, I need a moment.' Nobody could handle it because they infantilized me from the beginning."
Countering the negative stigma that public has about women going through similar state like her, the Long Island native says, "And that is something we should explore, because if a woman gets too emotional or too loud or too abrasive or too real, suddenly it's like, 'What's wrong with her? She's crazy.' "
Now, Mariah admits she's "like a petulant child," detailing, "And by the way, I do need someone to be like, 'Ok, we've got to go; you're running late." But she says it's fine. "But my true fans know this. I'm eternally 12," so she claims. "But we're artists."
During the interview, Mariah also talks about being a woman who "never wanted to be beholden to a man." She says, "I didn't want to be a kept woman. Most people have the misconception that I was. I paid for half of every single bit of that gigantic mansion in Bedford. I paid for the lights, everything down to the water because I said I wanted to do that."
"When you're with someone 20-something years older than you, and you're a female, the perception is always going to be this girl's being taken care of, " she adds, referring to her marriage to former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola. "No, darling. And they made billions of dollars off my incessant work. I did nothing but make albums. And I don't want to give you more than you need because I want to save some for my book."
Mariah is featured in Variety's Power of Women issue alongside actresses Jennifer Aniston, Awkwafina and Brie Larson, fellow singer Chaka Khan, and the Chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment, Dana Walden. They will be celebrated for their philanthropic efforts at a luncheon on October 11 at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons in Los Angeles.
