‘I Would Lay Up At Night Thinking…’: Nick Cannon Opens Up About Insecurities During His Marriage To Mariah Carey
Nick Cannon is getting candid about the insecurities he faced while married to his ex-wife Mariah Carey. Appearing on the Ray Daniels Presents podcast on Thursday, October 24, the actor, 44, opened up about his split from the singer, 55, and shared that he questioned his own identity during their six-year relationship from 2008 to 2014.
While admitting that he didn’t really care what people thought of his and Carey’s relationship, Cannon said the stark difference between his fame and hers began to affect him, leading him to question, “Who am I?”
“I got married in my 20s, you know what I mean? To the biggest star in the world,” he explained. “My trajectory was here,” he said, gesturing downwards, “and then hers—she’s already in a different stratosphere.”
According to Cannon, he struggled to establish his own identity outside of their relationship. “I would lay up at night thinking, like, ‘Is this who I am? Am I Mariah’s man? Is that what my life is supposed to be?’” Cannon expressed how he felt before adding, “There’s nothing wrong with it.”
He noted that things worsened when they had their twins, Moroccan and Monroe, in April 2011. He confessed that while he carried their kids’ diaper bag and stood in the corner while Carey rocked being an alpha, he struggled with his masculinity and the power hierarchy in their family. “I guess she needs a dude like that. I’m just not that dude,” Cannon added.
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Cannon and Carey first connected romantically in early 2008 when the actor starred in the singer’s Bye Bye music video. After only a few months of dating, the pair secretly married in May 2008.
In 2014, they announced their divorce after six years of marriage.
Both Carey and Cannon have spoken candidly about their failed marriage over the years. While the former addressed what drew her to the actor in 2020, stating he was a good, faith-based, and ambitious guy who had been in the industry for a long time, so she expected him to understand the madness of it all, the latter expressed his desire to reconcile with the singer in August this year. “We belong together,” he said.
He, however, also acknowledged in the same breath that Carey probably doesn’t want him back.
Since their split, Carey has been in several long-term relationships, while Cannon has welcomed 10 more children with several of his partners.
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