Mariah Carey Sympathizes With Rihanna, Reveals Past Abusive Relationship

Mariah Carey
Photo: CNN

Mariah Carey has long talked about her struggle for acceptance as a child of a mixed-race couple. But on Wednesday, Carey revealed that in addition to that burden, she has also once been the victim of emotional and mental abuse, revealing that she felt trapped in a relationship in which she felt no means of escape.

"Abuse has several categories, emotionally, mentally, in other ways," Carey told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Wednesday night. "I just think you get into a situation, and you feel locked in — if your situation is similar to one of the situations I've been in, which I won't harp on. ... For me, to really get out, it was difficult because there was a connection that was not only a marriage but a business thing, where the person was in control of my life."

Carey, 40, did not reveal the name of the person she was discussing, but speculation has landed on former husband and label boss Tommy Mottola, whom she married in a lavish ceremony in 1993 and divorced five years later. Carey has alluded in previous interviews to her feelings that Mottola was a controlling and restrictive presence in her life.

When asked if she knew Rihanna, Carey said she did and sympathized with the young singer over her assault in February at the hands of former boyfriend Chris Brown. "I was very sequestered, as you know, when I first started out, and if I were just allowed to be young and with a young boyfriend who's also a star and you know, you're working and you're both — I don't know what goes on," she said. "I wasn't really allowed out of the house, so I can't imagine what she went through."

King asked Carey why it was hard to get out of the relationship in which she was allegedly being emotionally and mentally abused. "Well, it's scary," she answered. "If someone — I mean, there's other things and other times in my life and things that I will eventually talk about when I write my book. And people that have — like, nobody in my family or anything like that, but just certain things that also make me identify with 'Precious,' the movie."

Carey also faced the inevitable pregnancy questions and said that with a packed schedule of promoting both the film — which has garnered the singer her best acting notices to date — and her Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel album, a child with new husband Nick Cannon is not currently in the offing.

"Right now? I'm going to take a swig of my scotch and let you know," she joked when King asked her if she was currently pregnant. "[Being pregnant] would be the happiest thing in my life, but what I'm saying is right now with this movie coming out, with the next few singles from the album and those things that I'm doing, I need to focus on that because I cannot do the having-a-child thing halfway. I wouldn't be just like, 'Oh, I'm having a child, yay! Let me get a nanny so I can give her the baby. Take the kid.' That doesn't work me. I don't believe in that."