“I vowed I’d stop talking about it”: Mariah Carey says humor helps her cope with past marriage to Tommy Mottola

Mariah Carey is the cover star for the September 2025 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and she revealed some details about her marriage to music executive Tommy Motola in the publication. Mariah Carey got married to SONY executive Mottola in 1993 and divorced some five years later in 1998.

The Obsessed hitmaker stated that she got through challenges in the marriage by relying on humor, and she had vowed never to speak about her marriage to Mottola again:

"Sometimes I feel angry about that time, but I think I’ve made peace with it — in any case, I vowed I’d stop talking about it,"

She added:

"Humor is my release, and people who know me know that. I’ll make little jokes about what happened because otherwise I could make every day a sob story. It’s a coping mechanism, but it’s in my nature to laugh."

This is not the first time Carey has spoken out about her previous marriage. In an interview with Cosmopolitan in July 2019, the R&B icon described marriage to Mottola as “almost like being a prisoner”:

"There was no freedom for me as a human being. 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."

Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola's relationship history explored

After Mariah Carey released her debut self-titled album in 1990, she shot to fame. She tied the knot with Mottola after they had dated for five years. Mariah Carey was 23 at the time, and Mottola was 43 at the time they exchanged marital vows.

Their lavish wedding ceremony was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, New York. The singer walked down the aisle in a $25,000 Vera Wang gown with a 27-foot train and 10-foot veil. After their divorce was officially finalized in 1998, Carey began dating singer Luis Miguel.

In her 2019 Cosmopolitan interview, the songstress likened herself to a child bride at the time of her marriage to Mottola:

"You might want to picture a child bride," she said at the time. "There was a conscious effort to keep me as this all-American, whatever that means, girl. It was very ­controlled. There was no ­freedom for me as a human being. It was almost like being a prisoner."

Interested Fans can pick up Harper’s Bazaar’s September issue, which goes on sale on July 31, 2025, for more details on Carey’s former marriage.

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