Mariah Carey has made a surprising (and very rare) admission about her life beyond the glitter.
In a candid interview with the New York Post’s Page Six, the mother-of-two admitted to struggling with “low self-esteem.”
“I just feel like I am a regular human being and I deserve the same respect as anybody else,” she told the publication, while sitting in her all-white dressing room filled with candles by famed Brit, Jo Malone. “I have always had low self-esteem, and people do not recognize that.”
“Growing up different, being biracial, having the whole thing where I did not know if I fit in … That is why music became such a big part of my life, because it helped me overcome those issues,” she continued. “Sometimes it is hard to let your guard down.”
The 47-year-old went on to explain that, as such, she finds it difficult to trust the sincerity of those around her.
“I do think to myself, ‘Did they mean this? Or do they not really mean it?’ ” she revealed. “And that is with everybody — it is not just with three people or just one.”
She added: “I can’t measure what type of respect I deserve — I really can’t.”
The ultimate diva also opened up about life before she found fame, painting a very different picture to what we’ve come to associate with the multihyphenate talent.
“I remember it not being easy getting a record deal,” she said. “Making demos in the middle of the night, sleeping on the floor in the studio, being broke with no food. My go-to meal was [Newman’s Own] sauce. Me and my friend would split the pasta and sauce for, like, a week. Or it was, like, a bagel and iced tea … The guy would give it to me at the deli for free.”
WATCH: Mariah Carey steals the show in Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. Post continues…
Mariah recently opened up about her well-documented diva antics, saying they were inherited from her mum.
“People can’t handle it… I come from a true diva: My mother is an opera singer,” Mimi told Paper magazine on August 21 of her mum Patricia Hickey.
“And that’s a real diva, you know — Juilliard diva. And so other people that are like, ‘I’m a diva,’ it’s like, ‘Honey, you don’t know what a diva is, you didn’t grow up with my mum.'”
“When people hear me say, like, ‘Dahling da da da da’ and talk that way, it’s kinda like I’m channeling my mother, not that she says ‘dahling’ all the time,” the popstar shared.
She added: “It’s like I inadvertently do it, and I don’t do it to be disrespectful, I just do it and it just happens and it’s like, [in diva voice] ‘I don’t even know why.’”
