Mariah Carey's Ex-Husband Tommy Mottola Says He's 'Deeply Gratified' to Have Been in Her Life
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Mariah Carey discusses dating Derek Jeter with Oprah for Apple interview
Tommy Mottola is wishing ex-wife Mariah Carey all the best ahead of her revealing new memoir's debut.
In a statement to Page Six, the music executive, 71, said, “I am deeply gratified to have played that role in Mariah’s well-deserved and remarkable success, and continue to wish her and her family only the very best.” The sentiment comes as the "Always Be My Baby" singer, 50, is set to publish her memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey on Tuesday.
Carey and Mottola tied the knot in 1993 and divorced in 1998, when the two were 23 and 43 at the time, respectively. (She later married Nick Cannon in 2008 and divorced in 2016, and the two share 9-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe.)
Their relationship began in 1991 when he was head of Sony Music. It grew romantic after her self-titled debut album became the best-selling record that year, according to Cosmopolitan, who Carey told in 2019 that the marriage was "almost like being a prisoner."
Rose Hartman/Archive Photos/Getty Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola in 1995
“There was no freedom for me as a human being,” she told the magazine at the time. “... You might want to picture a child bride. There was a conscious effort to keep me as this all-American — whatever that means — girl. There was no freedom for me as a human being. It was almost like being a prisoner.”
Mottola opened up about their relationship in a book of his own, 2013's Hitmaker: The Man and His Music, calling it “absolutely wrong and inappropriate.”
RELATED: Mariah Carey Says Derek Jeter Was the 'Catalyst' for Her to Leave Tommy Mottola: 'It Was Beautiful'
A post shared by Mariah Carey (@mariahcarey) on Sep 23, 2020 at 8:22am PDT
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He explained that he’s “truly sorry for any discomfort or pain that all of my good intentions inevitably caused her, and most of all for the scars it left on my two oldest children” from his first marriage.
Speaking with Oprah Winfrey on Apple TV+'s The Oprah Conversation on Thursday, Carey opened up about her relationship with the Derek Jeter, recalling how he was a "catalyst" for her to leave Mottola.
"Before you divorced Tommy Mottola, you met Yankee baseball player Derek Jeter, and you say he served a very high purpose in your life," Oprah, 66, said. "This was one of those situations of the right person at the right place and the right time. What was it about Derek? He got his own song too, right?"
RELATED VIDEO: Mariah Carey Says Fling with Derek Jeter Started While She Was Still Married
Mariah Carey Says Fling with Derek Jeter Started While She Was Still Married
The singer shared that her 1997 tracks "The Roof" and "My All" were about the baseball star
RELATED: Mariah Carey Was 'Uncomfortable' After Pregnancy Was Outed During 2008 Ellen DeGeneres Interview
Carey candidly replied: "He got his own song. He got a few songs. He was a catalyst that helped me get out of that relationship because I believed that there was somebody else."
"It was the racial situation, his mom is Irish, his dad is Black. But he was also very ambiguous looking to me. I didn't know who he was, we met and I've written songs about it," she added. (Last month, she told Vulture that "My All" and "The Roof" are about the baseball player.)
"And honestly, I don't think it was like, 'Oh my gosh, he was the love of my life,'" Carey continued. "Like, at the time I did, because I didn't think I would ever meet anybody who wouldn't — what's the word? I used the word, I just thought about this last night. Not looked down on but feel superior to me because of the fact that I'm not one way or another in most people's minds, and they have preconceived notions, whatever. But he was a catalyst. And I think that it was beautiful."
The Meaning of Mariah Carey is available wherever books are sold on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
