Mariah Carey reveals details of relationship with James Packer
Mariah Carey has opened up on some surprisingly intimate details about her failed engagement to James Packer, and why the couple’s romance “didn’t matter” to her.
Celebrity Life
Don't miss out on the headlines from Celebrity Life. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Pop superstar Mariah Carey has revealed that she and James Packer never had sex, saying the former couple did not have a “physical relationship”.
Carey made the stunning admission during an interview with The Guardian, also revealing that her relationship with the Australian billionaire “didn’t matter” to her.
Carey and Packer first started seeing each other in mid-2015, before becoming engaged in January 2016. They split the following October.
Carey was being interviewed to publicise her new memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, which details her allegedly abusive marriage to record label boss Tommy Mottola, as well as her union with US TV star Nick Cannon, with whom she has two children.
The singer also recalls a brief fling with American baseball superstar Derek Jeter in the book but there is zero mention of Packer.
Asked why Packer didn’t rate a mention in the book, Carey was blunt.
“If it was a relationship that mattered, it’s in the book. If not, it didn’t occur,” Carey said.
“We didn’t have a physical relationship, to be honest with you.”
In 2018, Packer also spoke about his relationship with Carey in his memoir The Price Of Fortune: The Untold Story Of Being James Packer, saying he had “become toxic” by the time they broke up.
Packer said his relationship with the multi-Grammy Award winner was “fun to begin with”.
“Wherever we went we were on the top table and that was because of her, not me. She was kind and she took an interest in my life,” he said.
Packer added that before the couple were due to marry, he was in “a bad, bad way”.
The former couple were introduced by American film producer Brett Ratner, who also ran a now-defunct production company with Packer.
They next met up at a Los Angeles film premiere, again with Ratner, and reportedly hit it off.
Before the relationship became public, Carey and her twins Monroe and Moroccan accompanied Packer on his yacht, the Arctic P in May 2015 for a Mediterranean cruise.
They were not publicly photographed together until June 2015 when they were spotted on the Italian island of Capri, where they were pictured strolling hand in hand.
Packer reportedly proposed in January of 2016, getting down on one knee at a New York restaurant, to present a 35-carat engagement ring. They reportedly planned to wed in Bora Bora on March 1.
But according to Packer there were “problems” negotiating a pre-nuptial agreement which it has been reported could have netted Carey up to $40 million.
After the couple’s split, Carey reportedly later sold off her $14 million engagement ring.
Speaking to The Australian in 2017, Packer said when he met Carey he was “at a low point in my personal life”.
“She was kind, exciting and fun. Mariah is a woman of substance. She is very bright. But it was a mistake for her and a mistake for me.”
When Carey was asked about Packer’s whereabouts in early 2017 she said, “I don’t know where the motherf***er is.”
In 2018 she told People magazine, “I wonder what I was thinking … The whole situation was a whirlwind. But I wish him the best.”
Packer echoed those sentiments more recently when asked about his former flame. “I wish her well,” he said.
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Carey addressed longstanding rumours that she was “difficult” and a “diva”.
“You know what? I don’t give a s**t. I f***ing am high-maintenance because I deserve to be at this point. That may sound arrogant, but I hope you frame it within the context of coming from nothing. If I can’t be high-maintenance after working my ass off my entire life, oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t realise we all had to be low-maintenance.’
Carey also said she couldn’t care less if anyone called her a diva. “No! Who the f**k cares? Honestly!” she said.
“Oh my God, they’re calling me a diva – I think I’m going to cry! You think in the grand scheme of things in my life that really matters to me, being called a diva? I am, b*****s, that’s right.”
MORE NEWS
‘We’ve had enough’: Meghan, Harry blasted
Trump’s ‘body man’ tests positive to COVID-19
Pell’s lawyer calls for bribe investigation
Originally published as Mariah Carey reveals details of relationship with James Packer