Mariah Carey On Being Called A Diva: ‘I Take It As A Compliment’

Want to know what Mariah Carey thinks about being called a diva?

The chart-topping pop chanteuse, who releases her new album “E=MC2” on April 15, chimed in on the topic in Parade magazine, this past weekend.

“They throw that word around like it’s a figgin’ Frisbee,” she said, when Parade asked her if she fit the tag.

“I grew up hearing it because my mother is an opera singer… The actual definition is a ‘talented female singer.’ Definition two is a ‘difficult woman who is successful,’ I believe. So I take it as a compliment.”

Though she is now happily dating record producer Mark Sudack, Carey also went on the record to Parade about her former marriage to Sony Exec Tommy Mottola.

Mottola found Carey, signed her and helped make her a star when she was 20. Three years later they married and four years after that, in 1997, the couple divorced.

“That part of my life always remains with me, because it was so intense,” she told the magazine. “But part of that is my fault, for allowing that relationship to kind of linger – or dare I say, fester – for so long. I grew up with such dysfunction that I assumed I didn’t have a right to a happy personal life.”

Following their split, Mariah ended up – in 2001 – on Virgin Records. During that time she suffered a well-publicized breakdown.

“My life was in such shambles, because I had allowed it to become a shambles,” she said of the period.

But in true Carey fashion, there was a comeback on the cards -– in the form of her uber-successful, “The Emancipation of Mimi” album in 2005. And she did it her way.

“You know what? I guess I am a diva in many ways,” she told Parade. “When it comes to certain things, yes, I can be difficult and a little bit rigid about what I want. Am I demanding? I don’t think I’m demanding enough. I think if I were more demanding, I would have felt that I had some sort of power as opposed to feeling like a pawn, which is something I had to grow out of.”