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ABC/Image Group LAMariah Carey‘s new memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, goes into detail about many aspects of her life, including her brief fling with Derek Jeter. But oddly, she doesn’t mention Australian billionaire James Packer — to whom she was engaged — at all.
Speaking to the British paper The Guardian, Mariah explains that by saying, “If it was a relationship that mattered, it’s in the book. If not, it didn’t occur.”
When the interviewer points out that Mariah was, in fact, engaged to Packer, she says, “We didn’t have a physical relationship, to be honest with you.”
Mariah and Packer got engaged in January 2016, after dating for nine months, but broke up by October. A year later, Packer told a newspaper, “I was at a low point in my personal life. She was kind, exciting and fun. Mariah is a woman of substance. But it was a mistake for her and a mistake for me.”
The couple was rumored to have split over Mariah’s “extravagant” spending. But when asked if she’s high-maintenance, the singer owns it.
“I don’t give a [damn],” Mariah says. “I 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 [butt] off my entire life, oh, I’m sorry — I didn’t realize we all had to be low-maintenance,” she laughs. “Hell, no! I was always high-maintenance, it’s just, I didn’t have anyone to do the maintenance when I was growing up!”
As for the diva label, Mariah says, “You think in the grand scheme of things in my life that really matters to me, being called a diva? I am, that’s right!”
By Andrea Dresdale
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