﻿Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon were once considered a Hollywood it couple,
so when they split it felt like the end of an era. Although they went their separate ways
almost a decade ago, it seems as though Nick has never gotten over Mariah. From tying the
knot in secret to parenting twins to how the TV host has changed his entire view on monogamy!
Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey’s love story began on stage at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards. The TV host
presented the singer with the surfboard award for choice music R&B artist. But before they stepped
onstage, they had met briefly backstage, and their encounter had Nick completely smitten.
Mariah had heard him speaking all of these positive secret little nothings about her in
interviews, and when she came across him before the awards, she stopped right in front of Nick.
“She's like, 'I heard all those nice things you've been saying about me.' I was like,
'They're true! Just give me an opportunity to make them come true!' And she smiled,
and they floated her off,” he recalled. The two were linked again 3 years later when
Cannon starred in Carey’s Bye Bye music video.
This is what sparked their whirlwind romance. Although at first, they denied that they were
a couple, it would become obvious mere weeks later that they were together and very serious.
After just 6 weeks of dating, the couple secretly tied the knot on Mariah’s private
island in the Bahamas. The singer-songwriter said she and Cannon were soulmates and that
she had never felt a love like this was in the cards for her. What could people be at the time
except happy? And we guess, a little skeptical! Usually, we hear about the engagement before the
wedding, but with Cannon and Carey, it was the other way around. After news of their marriage
broke, the singer discussed why they had kept their relationship and even the proposal private.
"We didn't want to give people a chance to be like, 'What are you doing? What are you talking
about? This is so quick. Are you sure?” she said. It turns out that Nick had proposed to Mariah on
two separate occasions. When he first popped the question, it was with a Ring Pop. He had
one for him and one for her, and when he unwrapped his, he said, “Look, baby, our favorite candy!”
She held her wrapper and said it felt like hers was broken, but inside was a 17-carat diamond
ring. A few days later, the Wild ‘n Out star proposed again on a romantic helicopter ride.
Their whirlwind romance didn’t slow down there. Just a year into their marriage,
which was a year and a half after they began dating, the pair shared that they were thinking
about starting a family. "We love each other, so we're constantly in practice. We're going
to let nature take its course, but the course is not a long one,” he said.
In 2009, Cannon stepped out to defend his wife. Rapper Eminem wrote about
Carey in his son Bagpipes from Baghdad. The track is all about his alleged romance
with the singer, which she has always denied. In the track, it goes, "Mariah, whatever happened
to us? Why did we ever have to break up?" The track also disses Cannon with one line reading,
"Nick Cannon, you better back the fuck up. I'm not playing. I want her back, you punk." Well,
that seems like a lot for a relationship that allegedly never happened, right?
Nick defended his wife and called the rapper out for disrespecting her in an entry on his personal
blog. "When you come out of your introverted hiding place and ask your bodyguards if you
can go out and play by yourself, I'm here, Pimp! I'm going to make you wish you never
spoke my name and regret the ungodly things you said about my wife," he said. Yeesh!
Later that year, the couple continued to prove their love by getting special tattoos in each
other's honor. The singer has "Mrs. Cannon" on her lower back, while her husband has "Mariah"
inked from one shoulder to the other. In 2010, in honor of their second wedding
anniversary, Carey and Cannon renewed their vows. This would become a tradition for the couple,
and the TV host opened up about why they do it. He said he encourages everyone to do it. If you’re
happy in love, you must celebrate it. "We get married every year. That's our thing," he said.
Speculation about whether or not the couple was expecting was still rampant. They were
open about wanting a family and that being their only priority in life,
but they wanted to make sure everything was out of the way and they didn’t have any distractions.
Then in October 2010, after months of speculation, Nick and Mariah confirmed they were pregnant.
Before this pregnancy, the singer had suffered a miscarriage, and according to the TV host,
the loss strengthened their relationship. A few months after they revealed they were expecting,
the couple surprised the public with another announcement — they were expecting twins!
On the 30th of April 2011, the same day as their wedding anniversary,
the pair welcomed a daughter and a son, Monroe and Moroccan. Cannon shared the news on social media
and said it was the best anniversary gift ever. The family of four seemed happier than ever. Then,
in January 2012, they had a scare when Nick was hospitalized for mild kidney failure. Mariah
never left his side and said that her husband was in a lot of pain but was still in good spirits.
"We are hopeful that he'll be 100 percent as soon as possible. We really appreciate
everybody's love and support," she said. After Cannon had recovered, he and Carey,
along with a few close friends, traveled to Paris to celebrate their twin’s first
birthday. On the same trip, the new parents renewed their vows for the fourth
time with a ceremony atop the Eiffel Tower. In 2014, the couple shocked fans when they called
it quits after six years of marriage. Apparently, they had separated a few months before filing for
divorce; Mariah stayed with the kids at their New York apartment while Nick was staying in hotels.
Rumors about the reasons behind their split began spiraling, and the entertainer took to
Twitter to defend his wife and address the status of their relationship.
"What infuriates me most is to hear people slander her. I will forever
be indebted to her for blessing me with our children. She is an amazing mother,
and I trust her wholeheartedly," he wrote. The pair’s main focus was co-parenting their
children. They said they would forever be a family, so they were making their
kids their number one priority and trying to understand how they could best love them.
While working out the details of their divorce, things got contentious for the former couple.
Mariah was late to the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree taping because she was on the phone
with her lawyers for five hours straight. Her fans were left waiting in the rain for three hours
because the call was important as the pair were arguing over property and custody of the twins.
In 2016, although the divorce hadn't been officially finalized,
the experience was enough for Cannon to swear off marriage. Opening up about the divorce,
he said he highly doubts he will ever get married again despite being a hopeless romantic. "If you
heard that there was a 50/50 chance of living or dying when you jump out of a plane, you probably
wouldn't go skydiving. There's like a 50/50 chance of a marriage working. If it didn't work out for
you the first time, and you still survived it, you probably shouldn't do it again," he said.
Later that year, their divorce was finally official. A few months in, despite their
cordial co-parenting arrangement that had them celebrating holidays together, Nick admitted that
he was struggling to move on. He said he couldn’t because he was broken, totally shattered.
Mariah released a memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and in it, she talked about her whirlwind
marriage. What initially drew her to Nick was that he was faith-based, ambitious and
had been in the entertainment industry for a long time so he understood the madness.
It was also his desire to have children that were the reason they delved into marriage as
quickly as they did. The singer also wrote about why their relationship ended and the messiness
of their divorce. "Honestly, I think Nick and I could have worked it out between the two of us,
but egos and emotions got inflamed,” she wrote. In the years to follow, Cannon would speak about
his marriage with Carey. He referred to his relationship with her as one of the
greatest experiences of his life and that it doesn’t get better than their
marriage. He also noted how she is the best friend he has so much respect for, admitting
that their divorce was very hard on him. In early 2022, Nick said that he still
hopes the couple will someday reconcile. "I will never have a love like I had with
Mariah. If I had the opportunity, if it could be the way that it was,
I'm there. That’s my homegirl,” he said. The Fantasy singer has been dating backup
dancer Bryan Tanaka since 2016 and the two seem to be very happy.
While they don’t have any plans on tying the knot anytime soon, they’re pretty inseparable.
It seems that Nick is also on board with the relationship and doesn’t want to come between the
two… well, kind of. "The dude is amazing with my kids, so I truly respect it. But come on, that's
my fantasy love. That's somebody that I will always love. She’ll always be my baby," he said.
Totally supportive of her new relationship, right?
Nowadays, Nick has 12 more children with 5 different women. That takes his total number of
children to 14 including the twins with Mariah. Not only that, but he also fathered all 12 of
those children in the last six years. He isn’t in a formal relationship with any of the women,
but he does love them all and they are all comfortable with the situation.
Cannon said that he lets the women know if they can coexist,
they’re responsible for their happiness. If he can add to it, he’s there.
"The traditional sense of monogamy, I don't subscribe to. I love all of
my children and every woman that's given me the blessing to experience that,” he said.
Mariah Carey is supportive of Nick Cannon’s lifestyle, but she doesn’t keep up with how
many children he has and who he has them with because it’s a lot. Despite their divorce,
the pair seem like they still have a lot of love for one another. Let us know in the
comments below if you think they’d ever get back together. As always, this has been Rumour Juice.