After months of media speculation, Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon have broken their silence for the first time.
In a new, exclusive interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush from inside the couple’s Manhattan home, Mariah and Nick confirmed they are expecting their first child together.
“Yes, we are pregnant, this is true!” Mariah told Billy of the baby that is due this spring. “It’s been a long journey. It’s been tough because I’ve been trying to hold on to a shred of privacy.”
Mariah said that after months of media speculation, she had to speak out.
“At this point, there is no choice. I either talk or I hibernate,” she said.
In the interview, Part 1 of which airs on Access Hollywood on Thursday, Mariah and Nick spoke candidly about their journey together, which included a terrifying miscarriage they experienced not quite two years ago. Mariah and Nick revealed they were getting ready to tell their friends and family the good news that they were expecting over the holidays back at that time, when they found out she was no longer pregnant.
“It kind of shook us both and took us into a place that was really dark and difficult,” Mariah told Billy about the devastating miscarriage. “When that happened… I wasn’t able to even talk to anybody about it. That was not easy.”
After the miscarriage, Nick said that the experience has made them stronger as a couple and he admires Mariah’s strength.
“It definitely brought us closer together,” Nick told Billy. “It strengthened our relationship so much… She handled it so well.”
Now that the word is out, Mariah and Nick say they plan to celebrate together and with their friends and family.
“The greatest gift on earth is a child,” Nick said. “We’ve had names picked out from the first day we met and we want to stay true to that.”
[CLICK HERE to watch Mariah & Nick’s interview with Billy!]
On Thursday’s Access Hollywood Live, more of Billy’s exclusive interview with Mariah and Nick aired, where the couple spoke about their pain following the miscarriage.
“Literally the day we were supposed to travel to Aspen, we had an ultrasound with the OB/GYN and unfortunately that was the time where he said, ‘I’m sorry, but this, you know, the pregnancy is unsuccessful,’ and that moment for me, even though it was emotional for both of us, that’s when I really saw the strength in this woman right here,” Nick recalled. “To see, literally, not only did she handle it so well… and then to get on a plane and have to spend Christmas with friends and family?”
“We had really to absorb this and take it in,” Mariah said.
“And that’s what I said, like her strength would literally be during the day so festive and smiling, obviously for cameras, and spending time with everyone and, you know, literally, that night crying herself to sleep,” Nick continued.
Billy also asked Mariah about the stress she was under after enduring so much speculation about a possible pregnancy.
“I wonder after losing the first child, was there a part of you — because of the media pressure — that felt like, ‘Can I do this?’’… that you had to get pregnant or else you would have failed in some way?” Billy asked.
“I mean obviously, that would be someone’s… you would imagine that that would enter someone’s mind,” Mariah explained. “When that happened and I wasn’t able to even talk to anybody about it, that was not OK. That was not easy. I’ve never really been a very forthcoming person about my personal stuff. Like, it’s just not my thing… Why do I have to talk about this in front of the world?’ It’s a little strange.”
Mariah’s new CD, “Merry Christmas II You,” is due out on November 2.
For more of Billy’s interview with the couple, tune into Access Hollywood on Thursday and Friday.
— Jesse Spero
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