Nick Cannon opens up about his insecurities in his relationship with Mariah Carey

Nick Cannon talks about the insecurities he faced during his relationship with his ex-wife Mariah Carey.

Appears on the Ray Daniels presents podcast on Thursday, October 24 Wild and out star, 44, opened up about his split from the singer, 55, and shared that he questioned his own identity after the pair tied the knot in 2008.

“I didn’t really care what the world thought because the perception, you know, that’s what it is. People are going to love you one day and hate you the next,” Cannon said during the episode. “I don’t care about that. … But facing myself with that pressure of, ‘Who am I?’ ”

“I got married when I was 20, you know what I mean? To the biggest star in the world,” he added.

“My trajectory was here,” he said, gesturing down, “and then hers: she’s already in another stratosphere.”

According to Cannon, he struggled to have his own identity outside of their relationship, although he acknowledged that he felt “comfortable” with Carey, joking that “she has islands and I wake up around noon and people give me steaks put on a scale. .”

“I would lie up at night and think, ‘Is this who I am? Am I Mariah’s husband? Is that how my life should be?’ Kanon said. “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

The actor also said he struggled with his masculinity and the “hierarchy” of their family after the couple welcomed their two children. Twins Moroccan and Monroe, in April 2011.

“I’m carrying a purse and the diaper bag and, you know, I’m standing on the corner and saying, ‘Wait.’ She rocks like the alpha,” Cannon continued, agreeing when the podcast host acknowledged, “She deserves it.”

“I think she needs a guy like that. I’m just not that guy,” Cannon added.

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Cannon and Carey first became romantically linked in early 2008 when the actor starred in the singer’s “Bye Bye” music video. After just a few months of dating, they married secretly in May 2008.

In 2014, they announced that they were divorcing after six years of marriage.

The two have both spoken candidly about their relationship before. In 2020, Carey released her memoir, The meaning of Mariah Carey. In it they wrote about her whirlwind marriage to Cannon and shared what initially drew her to him.

“He was a good guy. He was based on faith. He was ambitious,” she recalled. “He had been in the entertainment industry for a long time, so he understood the madness. He looked out for me.”

“Honestly, I think Nick and I could have worked it out together, but egos and emotions got inflamed (which can translate into a lot of billable attorney hours, and eventually it did),” Carey added in the book. “It was tough. We both wanted to make sure everything went well for our family. We will always be family and we are making it work.”

In August this year, Kanon told E! News: “We belong together.” He said he would “absolutely” get back together with Carey, adding that it would be “stupid if (he) didn’t.”

But Cannon joked to the outlet, “She doesn’t want me.” Just a few weeks later, he clarified to PEOPLE: “She has put my crazy antics behind her.”

Carey has since had several long-term relationships. Cannon has since welcomed ten more children with various other partners.