Mariah Carey Says Her "Messed-Up" Childhood Inspired Love For Christmas

Mariah Carey reflected on her "messed-up" upbringing while discussing her love for Christmas.

BYCole Blake
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2019 Billboard Music Awards - Show

Mariah Carey reflected on her love for Christmas during a new interview with W Magazine. In the piece, the legendary “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer admits she had a "messed-up" childhood.

"Darling, look, I know a lot of the time people are like, 'Oh, yay! Look at her! She’s, like, so festive and such a Christmas girl,' or whatever. But, really, Christmas makes me happy," Carey began, when asked about being "more iconic than Santa Claus."

LAS VEGAS, NV - SEPTEMBER 21: Mariah Carey performs onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

"People think I had this princess-style life or whatever, a kind of fairy-tale existence where I just emerged, like, 'Here I am!' And that is not what it is," she continued.

Carey elaborated: "I doubt you have enough time to write about all that, so we won’t go into it. But when you grow up with a messed-up life and then you’re able to have this transformation where you can make your life what you want it to be? That is joy for me. That’s why I want my kids to have everything they can have. I want them to be able to understand that they can be anything they want to be."

Carey had previously addressed her difficult upbringing in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. She wrote about her brother, Morgan Carey, being “abusive," as well as her sister, Alison Carey.

Mariah will be putting on a holiday show at Madison Square Garden, next month. She also recently performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with her two children, Moroccan and Monroe.

Carey released "All I Want for Christmas Is You" back in 1994 as the lead single for her first holiday album, Merry Christmas.

Check out Carey's cover for W Magazine below.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.