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Mariah Carey claimed she was “locked away” in her first marriage to former Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola.
Carey, in a new interview, opened up about leaving her marriage to Mottola and how it was “extremely difficult” for her.
The singer wrote “Butterfly” around the time her marriage was ending.
“‘Butterfly’ was a pivotal moment in my life,” Carey explained to Meghan Markle during an episode of her podcast “Archetypes.”
“The album ‘Butterfly’… you know, writing and producing and living in the studio and leaving the past life that I had with my first ex-husband behind was extremely difficult.”
Mariah Carey said she was “locked away” during her marriage to Tommy Mottola.
(Rose Hartman/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Mariah Carey explained it was “extremely difficult” to leave her past life behind while writing the album “Butterfly” during a conversation with Meghan Markle.
(Photo by Rose Hartman/Getty Images)
MEGHAN MARKLE REACTS TO MARIAH CAREY SAYING SHE GIVES ‘DIVA MOMENTS SOMETIMES’: ‘I STARTED TO SWEAT’
Carey has been outspoken about her first marriage and has even labeled Mottola “controlling” like a “father or warden” in previous interviews. In Markle’s podcast, she explained how she felt “locked away.”
“My first marriage, I was very much what’s the word? I was kind of locked away, and I was sort of, you know, given the rules and had to stick with them,” she told Markle.
The “Always Be My Baby” singer also revealed that she had paid for half of Storybook Mansion, where she resided with Mottola during their marriage. She insisted on paying for the home after she grew up moving around due to her mother’s relationships.
Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola at St Thomas Episcopal Church/Metropolitan Club in New York City at their wedding in 1993.
(Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
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“… we would live with this boyfriend and that boyfriend and whoever and wherever. And they always could say, like, get out of my house. I never wanted that for myself,” she told Markle. “I always wanted it to be like, ‘You know what? I own this too,’ like whatever.”
“But people didn’t look at it like that,” she added. “They were like she’s a kept woman. She’s this, she’s that. You know, it was all about that because the way of thinking at that time was very much like, of course, he’s doing everything, of course – how. But I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m a songwriter. That’s what I do.’”
Carey was married to Mottola from 1993 until 1998. Carey was 24 and Mottola was 43 at the time they tied the knot. The former couple’s relationship began in 1991 while Mottola was the head of Sony Music.
The “Obsessed” singer would go on to marry Nick Cannon in 2008. The two were married until 2016 and share twins together.
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Meghan Markle’s podcast launched on Aug. 23. She interviewed Mariah Carey for her second episode.
(Spotify)
Markle’s podcast aims to “investigate the labels that try to hold women back,” according to an audio teaser released in March.
“I’ll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives,” she shared at the time. “And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.”
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.