Mariah Carey Admits Her Viral ’08 Interview With Ellen DeGeneres Was ‘Extremely Uncomfortable’

As Ellen DeGeneres continues to address accusations of a toxic work environment on her talk show, as well as other complaints, Mariah Carey has weighed in on their controversial exchange from 2008.

In a new Vulture profile, brilliantly titled “Mariah Carey: You Don’t Know Her,” the singer looked back on her 2008 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. At the time, rumors had been circulating that she was pregnant following her wedding with Nick Cannon. After Carey had told DeGeneres, “Don’t discuss that,” the host seemed insistent on getting the pop star to confess by pressing her to drink champagne. 

“I can’t believe you did this to me, Ellen,” Carey said in the clip. “This is peer pressure. What Ellen is doing, this is peer pressure.”

“Let’s toast to you not being pregnant,” DeGeneres replied, to which Carey responded, “Why would you toast to that?” The singer opted to either pretend or just take a small sip of champagne. 

“You’re pregnant!” DeGeneres insisted, though Carey simply said it was too early for her to be drinking. 

Now Carey has opened up about the interview, which resurfaced following DeGeneres’s recent controversies. “I was extremely uncomfortable with that moment is all I can say. And I really have had a hard time grappling with the aftermath,” Carey told Vulture. “I wasn’t ready to tell anyone because I had had a miscarriage.

“[There’s] an empathy that can be applied to those moments that I would have liked to have been implemented,” she added. “But what am I supposed to do?”

Sadly, the singer had a miscarriage following the Ellen interview. Three years later, in April 2011, Carey welcomed twins Moroccan and Monroe on the fourth anniversary of her wedding to Cannon. The couple would divorce in 2014. 

Carey—who has a compilation album coming out this October and an Apple TV+ holiday special, Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special, later this year—said she’s not trying to add fuel to the fire. “I don’t want to throw anyone that’s already being thrown under any proverbial bus,” she told Vulture. “But I didn’t enjoy that moment.” 

Anyway…has anyone heard from Dakotah Johnson yet? 

Originally Appeared on Glamour