Behind her wealth, fame and success, Mariah Carey had to sacrifice many things.

Every year, after Halloween ends, Mariah Carey ‘s Christmas song climbs to the top of searches and becomes “hot” again. This year is no exception, currently the Christmas song and Mariah Carey have both become “viral” keywords on social networks with a huge search volume.

When mentioning one of the singers who successfully performed Christmas carols, the public will certainly immediately think of Mariah Carey. Because every Christmas, the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey resounds in every home and shopping center.

Besides her successful career, Mariah Carey’s life is also something that makes the public curious. Few people know that, behind that shining smile, Mariah Carey has gone through many events in her life.

Childhood was full of events

Born in 1969, Mariah Carey is the leading female diva of the American entertainment industry with many globally famous albums such as: Music Box (1993), Merry Christmas (1994) and Daydream (1995). In particular, the success of the song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” helped Mariah Carey be given the title “Queen of Christmas music” by the public.

Mariah Carey grew up in a family with an Irish-American mother and an African-American father. In the memoir “The Meaning of Mariah Carey” released in 2020, Mariah Carey revealed many hidden corners behind her glamorous life.

Mariah Carey and her biological mother

The female diva said that she had a not very peaceful childhood when she always faced racism because her father was African American. Not only that, every day the female singer has to witness scenes of violence, arguments and conflicts between her parents. When Mariah Carey was 3 years old, her parents divorced. The singer followed her mother and moved to Long Island. The lives of mother and daughter are always in a state of uncertainty. Even the house where the singer and her mother live is not called a home but simply a shack.

The lack of love and care from her parents and witnessing scenes of domestic violence left a psychological scar on Mariah Carey. This is also the reason why Mariah Carey’s MVs all show images of love between a black boy and a white girl.

Mariah Carey has a brother and sister

Also in her memoir “The Meaning of Mariah Carey”, Mariah Carey also revealed that she felt very lonely and difficult to get along with when she had parents of different colors. The female singer even endured being ridiculed by her classmates as a “teddy bear”, the reason coming from racial discrimination.

Not only Mariah Carey, the singer’s mother also suffered from the same situation. She was abandoned by her own family because she dared to marry a person of color. The obsession with racism has followed Mariah Carey almost her entire life.

Mariah Carey revealed that she was almost sold to a brothel by her sister

But this is still nothing compared to what her biological sister Alison did with the female diva. Mariah Carey’s older sister is 8 years older than the singer, this person has an extremely bad past when she often used banned substances, failed to commit suicide and got married at the age of 15 due to pregnancy.

When Mariah Carey was 12 years old, her older sister also let her use sedatives and banned substances. Even splashing hot tea caused the female singer to suffer third-degree burns. But even scarier was Alison’s attempt to sell Mariah Carey to a pimp. Mariah Carey said she always believed that her sister was the one who recruited call girls for a pimp named John. Alison even left Mariah Carey alone with John in the car, causing her to almost be raped by this pimp. Luckily, an older man curiously looked into the car so the female singer escaped unharmed.

The singer suffered from bipolar disorder in 2001, a disease that can cause sudden and extreme changes in mood. However, Mariah Carey has always kept quiet about her illness and remained silent in the face of criticism from the public about some extreme actions or diva attitude. In 2018, Mariah Carey first confided about this disease. The female singer said that she always feels lonely and is afraid that someone who knows will reveal this secret.

A difficult love affair, controlled by a husband 21 years older than her

Despite being rich and famous, Mariah Carey’s love life is not very happy. Mariah Carey first got married in 1993 at the age of 24. The singer’s first husband was Tommy Mottola – a talented music producer and CEO of Sony Music. Tommy Mottola was born in 1948 and is 21 years older than the singer. It was thought that marrying a man who was in sync with music would make Mariah Carey’s marriage complete and happy. But after 5 years of living together, the two “went their separate ways”.

Mariah Carey and her first husband Tommy Mottola

The two had an extremely luxurious and majestic wedding

Mariah Carey once described her marriage to Tommy Mottola as a “hell” of repression and control. According to Mariah Carey, she can only leave the villa with her husband’s permission. Every corner of the villa is equipped with cameras, every step of Mariah Carey is followed by a team of bodyguards and security. This marriage was so scary that Mariah Carey could not sleep in the mansion but had to secretly rent an apartment in Manhattan next to her acting coach. In fact, she only used the excuse of working with her coach to come to this apartment to sleep.

After a long period of repression, Mariah Carey decided to divorce Tommy Mottola. But the fact that the female singer announced this decision right in front of her husband’s friends made him angry. According to Mariah Carey, one night, Tommy Mottola held a butter knife to her face and slowly and angrily pulled it down her cheek.

Due to being suppressed too much, Mariah Carey was determined to get a divorce

After the divorce, Mariah Carey left Sony Music, but Tommy Mottola used his power to ruin the singer’s career. He cut her image out of promotional products at record stores.

In this memoir, Mariah Carey also confided about her love affair with baseball star Derek Jeter. But this love story did not last long. After that, the female singer continued to date male singer Luis Miguel. The two were together for 3 years then broke up. In 2008, Mariah Carey married her second husband, Nick Cannon. The couple had twins together and officially “went their separate ways” in 2014.

Mariah Carey and her second husband Nick Cannon

Next, Mariah Carey also quickly started a relationship with Australian casino billionaire – James Packer. The couple dated in 2015, then announced their engagement in January 2016. But after only 9 months, the media revealed that the two had canceled their marriage. What is more surprising is that Mariah Carey herself also suffered a mental shock when she learned this news through the media, not from her fiance.

Mariah Carey and her ex-fiancé James Packer

Mariah Carey with her young lover

The reason is said to be because Mariah Carey cheated on her billionaire fiance when she had a relationship with a young male dancer. However, Mariah Carey’s representative firmly denied that the singer had an affair. Although she denied it, just 1 month after the incident, Mariah Carey publicly announced her dating relationship with a young dancer 13 years her junior – Bryan Tanaka.

Always appearing with the image of a successful and strong woman, few people would have thought that in the past Mariah Carey had to face so many incidents. Through the sharing in the memoir, the public also partly understands Mariah Carey’s efforts to escape her dark past and reach out to reach the glory of her career. Although she is now in her 60s and rarely appears, it cannot be denied that the female diva still has a strong influence in the American music industry.