Nick Cannon: Marriage to Mariah Carey plunged him into crisis

After their lightning wedding in 2008, comedian and actor Nick Cannon (44) and his wife Mariah Carey (55), who was ten years older than him, were considered an absolute dream couple, and the birth of their sweet twins Moroccan and Monroe (now 13 years old) in 2011 also seemed to be the case to confirm perfect marital happiness. But the couple announced their separation in 2014, and in the divorce process there were sometimes tough arguments over custody of their children and the family dogs. The arguments now seem to have dissolved into general well-being.

In an interview, Cannon spoke with surprising openness about the insecurities he suffered during his marriage to the famous singer. He described his situation at the time as follows: “I didn’t really care what the world thought, because that’s just how the perception is. People love you one day and hate you the next day. I didn’t care at all…” However, the career imbalance in their relationship put him under pressure from the start.

“I married in my twenties, you know what I mean? To the biggest star in the world.” While his career was still in its early stages, his wife was already in a completely “different stratosphere”. He explained what this meant to him with the following image: “It has islands and I wake up at noon and people bring me steaks on a tray.”

This often left him unable to sleep at night. At some point he realized that he was just the husband of a superstar and no longer himself. “I lay awake at night thinking, ‘Is that really me?'” Cannon said. “Is this really what I want my life to look like?”

Ultimately, he suffered above all from this always noticeable hierarchy in his relationship, which plunged him into a real identity crisis. “I’m standing in the corner with a handbag and a diaper bag and I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute, she’s rocking her role as the alpha animal here’.” That’s when he realized that Carey needed a guy like that. “But I’m just not that guy,” says Cannon.