We all get knocked down by life from time to time. Negative experiences can't always be sidestepped. But we do have a choice about how we react to setbacks, rejections, and frustration. Megastar Mariah Carey recently dished about how she handles unhappy memories of her long-ago first marriage to Sony Music exec Tommy Mottola. The pair were wed from 1993 to 1998. There was a large age gap between them - 21 years - and a professional power imbalance as well.
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With her album, Here for it All, scheduled to drop in September, Carey talked candidly about that troubled first marriage.
Carey Tries To Stay Upbeat About the Past
The high-profile music-makers began seeing each other in 1991, per People. They tied the knot two years after and split permanently five years later. In between, Carey says there were some tough times. Per the outlet via Harper's Bazaar UK, she shared, "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 explained further, "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."
It Sounds Like She Felt Uncomfortably Controlled
Carey had her own ideas about the music she wanted to sing. She reportedly was not always able to be in full charge of her professional life, however. "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."
Carey Was Even More Blunt in an Interview Six Years Ago
In 2019, she was more plain-spoken about the problem in her marriage. According to the outlet via Cosmopolitan, Carey said, "You might want to picture a child bride. 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."
