Mariah Carey today broke her silence about the awkward moment she called the Duchess of Sussex a ‘diva’ on her podcast – insisting she meant it in the most ‘fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering’ meaning of the word.
A shocked Meghan had said the label levelled at her by the pop superstar during their podcast conversation had made her ‘sweat’ and ‘stopped her in her tracks’.
In a voiceover at the end of Meghan’s second Archetypes episode, released by Spotify on Tuesday, the duchess said the remark left her worried about the ‘nonsense’ Carey might have read about her.
On Friday, Carey tweeted about what she meant when she called Meghan a diva, as well as posting a link to the podcast.
‘Really enjoyed talking to Duchess and Diva Meghan Markle about ‘The Duality of Diva.’ Yes! I called her a diva, in the most fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering meaning of the word!!! #Archetypes,’ she wrote.
Mariah Carey has doubled down on calling Meghan Markle a ‘diva’, insisting she meant it to be in a complimentary fashion
The singer, 53, appeared on the the second episode of her Archetypes podcast on Spotify when she told the Duchess, 41, ‘you give us diva moments sometimes Meghan’
Carey had already retweeted a Spotify Podcasts tweet linking to the episode.
Titled The Duality Of Diva With Mariah Carey, the episode explores the ‘complexities surrounding the ‘diva’ and the negative connotations associated with the word.
Meghan, in a voiceover, mentions the outlandish diva demands associated with Carey – including reported requests for 20 white kittens and 100 white doves when she turned on the Christmas lights in London – but she does not appear to have questioned the singer on them.
Meghan laughs and says: ‘Maybe you read about the time that she supposedly requested 20 white kittens and 100 doves in London? I don’t know.’
During the 46-minute episode, Carey told the former Suits actress: ‘You give us diva moments sometimes, Meghan. Don’t even act like …’ with an aghast duchess responding and laughing in surprise: ‘What kind of diva moments do I give you?’
Speaking at the end of the podcast, Meghan said: ‘It was all going swimmingly, I mean really well, until that moment happened, which I don’t know about you but it stopped me in my tracks when she called me a diva.’
Meghan added: ‘You couldn’t see me, obviously, but I started to sweat a little bit. I started squirming in my chair in this quiet revolt. Like wait. What? No. What? How could you? That’s not true. Why would you say that?
‘My mind genuinely was just spinning with what nonsense she must have read or clicked on to make her say that.’
A shocked Meghan had started to ‘sweat’ and ‘stopped her in her tracks’, when she was labelled a ‘diva’, yet Mariah has since insisted that she meant no ill harm
The duchess said Carey was quick to reassure her and that she meant the label as ‘chic’ and ‘aspirational’.
Meghan said: ‘She must have felt my nervous laughter and you all would have heard it too, and she jumped right in to make sure I was crystal clear.
‘When she said diva, she was talking about the way that I dress, the posture of a clothing, a quote unquote fabulousness as she sees it.
‘She meant diva as a compliment. I heard it as a dig. Heard it as the word diva as I think of it, but in that moment, as she explained to me, she meant it as chic, as aspirational.’
In the exchange, the pair discussed the concept of a diva, with Meghan saying: ‘That’s really important for people to remember that there might be this persona, this diva thing we can play into. It’s not something I connect to but for you, it’s been a huge part.’
Carey replies: ‘You give us diva moments sometimes, Meghan. Don’t even act like…’
Meghan responds with: ‘What kind of diva moments do I give you?’
Carey laughs, adding: ‘Don’t act like you… it’s also the visual.’
Meghan replies: ‘Oh, it’s the look.’
Listen: Titled The Duality Of Diva With Mariah Carey, the episode explored the ‘complexities surrounding the diva’ and the negative connotations associated with the word
The former Suits star said that she was inspired by the singer when she was a child because Mariah is mixed race. Mariah’s father is African-American and Venezuelan, while her mother is white Irish.
The Duchess, whose estranged father Thomas is white and her mother Doria is black, said that when Mariah first came on the music scene she thought: ‘Oh my gosh. Someone who looks like me. She’s mixed like me’, adding that she was a ‘fan girl’ of the star.
She added: ‘Because we’re light skinned, you are not treated as a black woman. You’re not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between.
‘If there is any time where there was more focus on my race it was when I started dating my husband. Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a black woman because up until then I was treated as a mixed woman and things really shifted’.
Mariah replied: ‘But that’s an interesting thing, a mixed woman, because I always thought it should be OK to say I’m mixed, like it should be OK to say that, but people want you to choose.’
Starting the podcast, Mariah tells Meghan: ‘I’m MC, you can call me Mimi, you can call me Mariah, whatever you want.’ The duchess began the conversation by asking the name of Carey’s dogs – Cha Cha and Muttley P Gore Jackson.
Last Tuesday Meghan used episode one of Archetypes with Serena to take a veiled swipe at life in the Royal Family. She also recounted her horror at a time a ‘fire’ broke out in son Archie’s room during a tour of South Africa.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on June 3, on their last visit to the UK
The then-four-month-old was not in the room at the time that a heater began to smoke but it left the duchess ‘shaken’ and ‘in tears’, she told her friend. Despite her upset, she said she was forced to continue with the couple’s official engagements.
The podcast release came a day after the duchess gave a controversial interview to The Cut in which she said she had made an ‘active effort’ to forgive the royal family, warning ‘especially knowing that I can say anything’.
She also said she was told there was the same jubilation in South Africa when she married Harry as there was when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison.
Read all about it: The Duchess of Sussex recently gave a bombshell interview to The Cut – part of New York magazine
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