Mariah Carey Says Fling with Derek Jeter Started While She Was Still Married
Mariah Carey is revealing new details about her early romance with Derek Jeter.
Discussing her upcoming memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, with Vulture, the singer confirmed that two of her 1997 tracks were actually written about the former Yankee player.
In the book, the 50-year-old shared that she met Jeter at a dinner party and started "secretly" texting the athlete toward the end of her marriage to music executive Tommy Mottola.
She also recalled the moment the two shared a "clandestine kiss" on the top of his apartment building, which Carey told Vulture went on to inspire her song, "The Roof."
When asked if she remembered her first kiss with Jeter, Carey told the outlet, "Of course I do!"
The star even recalled wearing a "buttery leather Chanel skirt" and the rain making her hair curl during the romantic scene.
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"I can never forget that moment," she said. "I mean, it’s not like it was some intensely deep, intellectually stimulating — again, it was a great moment, and it happened in a divine way because it helped me get past living there, in Sing Sing, under those rules and regulations.”
Carey — who finalized her divorce from Mottola in 1998 — has referred to her previous home with the music executive as "Sing Sing," the name of the infamous New York prison.
The artist also revealed that her song, "My All," was about her relationship with Jeter.
When Carey sings in the song, "I'd risk my life to feel your body next to mine," she alludes to risking her life to spend a night with the baseball star.
More than a decade after her marriage to Mottola ended, Carey tied the knot for the second time with Nick Cannon in 2008. The two share 9-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe. Cannon, 39, and Carey divorced in 2016.
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The pop crooner teamed up with writer Michaela Angela Davis on her memoir to share her tale, described through a press release as, "an improbable and inspiring journey of survival and resilience as she struggles through complex issues of race, identity, class, childhood and family trauma during her meteoric rise to music superstardom."
Carey announced in July that she had finished writing her memoir, sharing a photo to Instagram celebrating the completion of her upcoming book with a lengthy letter.
"It took me a lifetime to have the courage and clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments," Carey began. "The ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams that contributed to the person I am today."
"Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my career and very public personal life, it’s been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or 10-minute television interview,” she added. “Even then, my words were filtered through someone else’s lens, largely satisfying someone else’s assignment to define me."
