Mariah Carey Said She Felt Like a ‘Child Bride’ in Her Marriage to Tommy Mottola

Tommy Mottola has a new host of problems to deal with. The music mogul appears hundreds of times in the Epstein Files, painting the picture of a close friendship with the now-dead convict. The more Hollywood learns of his connection, the more people are trying to distance themselves from him, claiming surprise at the friendship. His inclusion in the Epstein Files probably doesn’t come as a huge shock to some people who used to be close to him, though. Mariah Carey has been adamant that her troubled marriage to Tommy Mottola was heavily influenced by their power imbalance. She’s been speaking out against her ex-husband for years, long before his connection to Jeffrey Epstein was made public. With the added context of his connection to Epstein, some of what Mariah Carey has said about Tommy Mottola is getting a hard side-eye now.

Mariah Carey likened herself to a ‘child bride’ during her marriage to Tommy Mottola

Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola’s short-lived marriage was pretty traumatizing for the songstress. It was distressing enough that she’s spoken about it multiple times over the years. She’s never had anything particularly nice to say about her ex-husband. Back in 2019, before Mottola’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein was made public, Carey sat down for a chat with Cosmopolitan. Her marriage to Mottola came up, and her words were disturbing.

Carey told the publication that people could see her as a bit of a “child bride” being controlled by a much older, much more powerful man. She described the inner workings of their marriage as imbalanced. According to the songstress, Mottola controlled almost everything in her personal and professional life. Carey said she felt like a prisoner and that Mottola had stifled her musical creativity in an effort to keep her as an “All-American girl.” She called the marriage inappropriate and wrong.

How long were Tommy Mottola and Mariah Carey married?

It has been more than 25 years since Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola finalized their divorce. The financial settlement has never been disclosed. The split was headline fodder back in 1998, but that wasn’t a big surprise. Their entire relationship was part of an overwhelming media frenzy. Maybe, deep down, everyone knew how wrong it was.

Carey met Mottla professionally back in the late 1980s. She was just a teen back then. He was already 40. In 1991, their connection grew romantic, with Carey, then just 21, signing to the music label Mottola controlled. They married in 1993 in a lavish affair attended by the elite. She was 23, he was 44. While all seemed pretty quiet initially, their romance imploded in 1997. The following year, their divorce was finalized, but not before Carey was dragged for the split. Back in 2001, she contended that Mottola launched a “smear campaign” against her after she left him. He denied that at the time.