Mariah Carey has addressed if she is a diva in a bombshell interview with Meghan Markle.
The songstress, 53, has appeared on the second episode of the Duchess' Archetypes podcast to talk about being labelled as the ultimate diva.
From telling off a backing singer for stealing her thunder to her iconic MTV cribs tour in high heels, Mariah has rocked the title during her thirty years in the spotlight.
And now the singer has spoken about why she embraces being called a diva and the "pivotal moment" in her life that led to her being named it - the breakdown of her first marriage.
Mariah met Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola, who was 23 years her senior, when she was just 18 trying to get her big break in the industry.
They tied the knot when she was 23, but they divorced in 1998, with the songstress later claiming she felt "controlled" within the marriage.
Mariah describes her sixth studio album Butterfly as the "pivotal moment in my life" where she entered a new era and saw her success catapult.
"Leaving the past life that I had with my first ex-husband behind was extremely difficult," she said.
"My first marriage I was very much locked away and was sort of given the rules and had to stick with them.
"And Butterfly wasn't like "oh I'm a butterfly", it was a song. The lyrics came to me as I was leaving where we lived in this massive mansion - that I paid for half of, people don't know that."
Mariah said she was determined to break the mould to be successful in her own right, spurred on by growing up as a child moving from home to home when her mother's relationships with partners broke down.
"I never wanted that for myself," she said. "But people didn't look at it like that. They said 'she's a kept woman, she's this, she's that'.
"It was all about that because of the way of thinking at that time was "of course he's doing everything". But I'm like "Hi I' m a songwriter, that's what I do.
"Clearly I've worked hard but I started working hard at 6-years-old having to be the saviour for my mum".
Elsewhere in the podcast, Mariah and Meghan spoke about the word diva and how the connotations have turned from glamour and a glittering stage presence to being high maintenance and cold.
Talking about living with the title, the Emotions hitmaker, who is mixed race, embraces it after feeling like an "ugly little girl who didn't fit in".
"I had nothing no money, no nothing. I would see people on TV with their hair floating in the wind. That's why I'm like I've got to have that. I didn't fit in anywhere at all", she said.
"In a world where you are the mixed kid in a full on white neighbourhood that is what you get."
Of being called a diva, Mariah said: "Honestly half of it is just for laughs. Of course I wanted to be that glamorous because I felt like an ugly little girl who didn't fit in with anybody. The diva thing continues to evolve and it's just for laughs.
"They can call you whatever they want, but whatever. I'm not looking for basic, pedestrian. I know I go a little over the top but in this era, it's ok."
The songstress went on to call Meghan a diva - which left the Duchess admitting at the end of the podcast she was "stopped in my tracks and sweating a little".
