Midmorning With Aundrea - October 23, 2020 (Part 3) [ENCORE PRESENTATION]

(Part 3 of 4) Jane Pauley sits down for an intimate chat with pop diva legend Mariah Carey.

Ma mariah carey is a music legend.

But it was the struggles of her early life that truly forged her, as she told jane pauley during a recent visit... jane pauley: 16:16:23 mariah carey, hello.

Mariah carey: 16:16:25 hello, jane.

Good morning- narration # 1: yeah, the one andne and only mariah carey&with a record 19 chart topping hits&and that famous five octave range.

But in a new memoir, mariah carey goes deep into some very dark places& mariah carey: 16:30:01 // there's a lot of stuff that i'm dealing with in the book that i have never dealt with, even in conversation with some of my closest, closest friends.

Narration # 2: the youngest member of an interracial family, she was three when her parents divorced.

She grew up with her mother.

And though she was a trained opera singer, carey writes, they lived in near poverty and chronic instablity&moving 13 times.

The one sustaining constant&mariah carey had a vision&of success.

Jane pauley: 16:22:13 //if i'm reading your book correctly, even as a child, you felt a certain inevitability about that, right?

Mariah carey: 16:22:44 // i always knew that i would do this and it was just a matter of when it was going to happen.

// because i came from, you know-- a broken and dysfunctional family and-- without money or things that most people had&when i say without money, we really didn't have much of anything.

Narration # 3: it was a bleak and scary childhood&that she spun into gold and platinum& 16:23:14 // because i felt like such an outsider, which is a theme // i've dealt with in my music from the beginning-- // in terms of being-- a black woman who was also of mixed race// 16:23:58 because when someone is vis-- visually ambiguous, like myself, there's a certain-- there's a lotta different misconceptions that come with that.

// jane pauley: 16:30:36 // one of the most painful-- episodes in the book happened when you were-- in-- in middle school and-- //and hangin' out with-- girls that were-- you know, every middle school has its mean girls, right, // mariah carey: 16:31:04 // they weren't, like, the ultimate cool girls of the school.// jane pauley: 16:31:11 okay, fine.

Yeah.

Mariah carey: 16:31:12 but they were very pretty and // they were different than me because they were white girls-- who kinda could wake up and just look fabulous with their hair, that didn't need to be tended to and dealt with.

16:31:30 with the actual texture that my hair is where it's curly but it's frizzy and it's this and it's that, // 16:31:46 and my mother kind of being oblivious to the fact that, like, yeah, we need conditioner and // we need to figure out this child's hair.

Narration # 4: so then these "pretty girls invite her to spend a weekend& mariah carey: 16:33:07 // i was so excited and innocently thinking, oh, this is gonna be great, know, i just felt utterly betrayed because they cornered me in order to-- just completely derail me and use words we don't say.

Jane pauley: 16:33:39 the words that you're thinking, yeah, over and over and over and over again-- mariah carey: 16:33:43 over and over and over-- in a chant.

Narration # 5: fast forward five years - one of the most powerful names in the music industry - sony music ceo tommy mottola discovers a teenager named mariah carey.

When they married in 1993, more of us knew her name than his.

Jane pauley: 16:37:43 // you're the power couple in the music industry, //but one of you didn't have any power and that was you.

Mariah carey: 16:37:56 right.

I did not have any power in that relationship.

// narration # 6: she was 23.

He was 44!

Mariah carey: 16:38:15 // i was a kid in his world and i just kept making money for the company.

Just kept goin' in and making records and making records and writing songs and, you know-- feeding the machine.

And i was living my dream but it was also a nightmare.

Narration # 7: "storybook manor is what she named the mansion the two of them built together with all the trappings of success.

As she describes in a chapter she called "princess prisoner"...she fel trapped.

Mariah carey: 16:40:42 // when you're young and you're an artist and everybody else is, like, having fun and going out and experiencing the limelight and the fame // i wasn't doing that.

I was, you know, living in this beautiful mansion but it was very-- lonely and-- and hard to just even catch my breath or have a phone conversation.

Narration # 8: carey and mottola divorced after 5 years.

Finally free...and at the peak of her recording career, she tried movies&leading to the darkest chapter of her life.

Mariah carey: 16:58:00 // i couldn't even say the word, glitter.

It'd be like people around me sparkle instead of glitter.// narration # 9: 'glitter' was loosely based on her life.

It bombed.

Jane pauley: 16:55:37 // there was a year, // the tabloids tried to eat you alive, and i'm talkin' about-- 2001-- mariah carey: 16:56:07 the glitter era--// 16:56:16 // it was an intense time.

16:56:35 // there's very few people, //who understand, like, being under the constant scrutiny-- of the world or the press,// jane pauley: 16:57:17 well, you describe// the low point, i guess-- when you went// a week with two hours' sleep?

Mariah carey: 16:57:30 yeah; six days.

Jane pauley: 16:57:33 and that's-- that's-- i mean, that's-- that's not-- not well and-- and-- mariah carey: 16:57:37 it's unacceptable.

But i allowed myself to be put in the position-- for that to happen.

So, i was working so hard and // 16:58:00 and i wasn't about to let everything i'd worked so hard for just to slip away.

So, i worked myself into the ground.

Narration # 10: ...and into treatment late in the summer of 2001.

Jane pauley: 16:58:51 when the twin towers fell on 9/11?

Mariah carey: 16:59:16 i was in a very dark place that ended up almost completely destroying my life.

But when the towers were collapsing, i left that place and somehow survived, like we all had to.

Personal drama attached to it 'cause that was the day it was-- that glitter was supposed to be released // jane pauley: 17:00:07 but it was the day you were-- released-- from-- a place-- mariah carey: 17:00:13 from a place that i didn't belong-a facility& narration # 11: ten days later&mariah carey reappeared in the spotlight&singing a song america need to hear& mariah carey: 17:00:42 and honestly, it was such a rough time for us all that it just-- my own personal drama fell by the wayside.// narration # 12: mariah carey not only wrote hero but 18 of her number one hits&she was inducted this year into the songwriters hall of fame.

Narration # 13: and yes, she wrote that one too.

Last year, 25 years after "all i wan for christmas is you" debuted, a instant holiday standard, it hit number one on the billboard chart.

A gift from her 'lambs' - as her fans are known.

She calls them her 'lambily'.

Mariah carey: 16:52:07 // there's just no way to describe the fact that it is a real relationship that i have with my fans.

And, no, it is not lip service.

It is genuine gratitude for them, and for them validating my existence.

Narration # 14: now the devoted mother to nine year-old twins with former husband nick cannon, at, 50, mariah carey is looking forward to chapters yet to come& jane pauley: 16:35:44 // your life is kind of like your range.

The lows are incredibly low.

The highs are incredibly high.

And you gotta deal with 'em both.

// mariah carey: 16:36:17 i know---it's interesting that you say it like that because // it's sort of like, yeah, what would you rather have, like, access to meeting all your, the icons and // all the fabulous moments // but then the lows are extremely low.

And where i've had to come up to just feel, like, worthy-- of basically anything is-- you know, it's been a long journey and we're still on it.

When a small job goes big, it can be a really good