*UPDATE Nick Cannon confirmed on Good Morning America October 9th, that he and Mariah Carey are officially separated. Despite their separation, Cannon says he, Carey and their children will spend the holidays just like they usually do. “It’s always a house full of people and pets and dogs. Christmas Eve we like to have sleigh rides and reindeer,” Cannon said on GMA today. “It’s a lot of fun. So when you read the book, everything seems over the top, but it really happens.”
Most people were surprised when pop diva Mariah Carey and all-around entertainer Nick Cannon announced they had been married in April, 2008. The couple managed to keep their romance a secret, covering for the time they were spending together by naming Cannon as the lead in the Mariah Carey music video for “Bye Bye.” They were wed two months after their first date. They had met before, however, three years prior when Cannon and Carey were both presenters at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards. While Cannon admitted to always having a crush on the singer, he put off making any moves until 2008.
Mariah Carey released her first album in 1990 and took the world by storm. Wanting to sing since high school, she wooed the executives at Columbia Records and, with their support, was able to reach the top of the Billboard 200 with her self-titled album which won a slew of awards. The first four singles she released reached number one, making her the first person to do so since The Jackson 5. She released a second album that sold successfully, but Carey was pressured to tour, many claiming she was only a studio artist not capable of performing live. To combat those claims, Carey appeared on MTV’s Unplugged, and the set was so successful her label turned it into an EP that went Triple-Platinum. By then, Carey was a certified pop-star with viable talent. She released Music Box in 1993, another album that went to the top of the Billboard 200, and then came out with her iconic Christmas album, which became the best-selling Christmas album of all time.
While her music career was taking off, her personal life was starting to wane. Carey had married the head of Columbia Records in 1993, but by 1997 their relationship was crumbling due to artistic differences. The two finally divorced and Carey started releasing music in a completely different style and direction as a way to establish her independence as an artist and further separate herself from her ex-husband. She decided to venture into other projects, creating songs for films and working on a movie of her own, Glitter. She also released another album, Rainbow, in 1999. It was received well by critics, but her strained relationship with her ex-husband lead to tumultuous politics with her label (which he ran) and they ended up pulling promotional funding, stunting the growth of the album. Carey ended up leaving the label in 2001 after she was named Billboard’s Artist of the Millennium.
For the next few years, Carey worked on her music and acting and faced the toughest run of her career. Following hospitalization for exhaustion, her film Glitter flopped along with the soundtrack. Her next album Charmbracelet also faced negative reviews, and a film she acted in, Wisegirls, was panned by critics. Finally, in 2005, Carey found success in her The Emancipation of Mimi which became a career defining album and raised her to prominence once again. Right before meeting Nick Cannon, Carey released her seventh album E=MC² which did extremely well and gave her the most number one singles in United States history for a solo artist.
Meanwhile, as Carey was dealing with the lowest point in her career in the early 2000s, Nick Cannon’s career was starting in full force. Working on the Nickelodeon show All That, Cannon proved his acting chops and soon was hosting his own TV show The Nick Cannon Show followed by the MTV improv comedy series Wild ‘n Out. While creating a steady on-camera career, Cannon was simultaneously growing his musical talents. The rap group he started, Da G4 Dope Bomb Squad, worked alongside acts like Will Smith and 98 Degrees, and he was signed to Jive Records in 2001. Cannon was able to manage both his acting and musical career—starring as lead in films such as Drumline and Love Don’t Cost a Thing, while providing music for movies like Jimmy Neutron.
After marrying Carey, Cannon started his own record label— N’Credible Entertainment—in 2009 and was named the chairman of TeenNick providing creative and development consultation. Also in 2009, his on-camera work paid off, prepping him for the biggest hosting role of his career on America’s Got Talent. While caring for his kids, managing his hosting, music, and business career, and spending time with Mariah, Cannon continues to write for TV and signed a deal with NBCUniversal in 2012 for scripted and unscripted series. A minor setback in his voracious work schedule, Cannon was hospitalized in 2012 for mild kidney failure and was later diagnosed with lupus nephritis. Healed and operational, Cannon now has a syndicated CBS radio show, performs stand up, and his sketch show Wild ‘n Out returned to MTV in 2013.
Nick and Mariah have been married for five years and were instantly attracted to each other’s fun personality and dedication to work. After falling head-over-heels in 2008, the two promised to renew their vows every year, and on their third wedding anniversary in 2011, Carey gave birth to twins named Moroccan and Monroe Cannon. For their fifth anniversary this year, the couple rented out the entire Disneyland resort for a Fantasy wedding and to celebrate their children’s second birthdays. Asked about the beginning of their relationship, Mariah said “One of the first things, I said, ‘I’m going to call you Mr. C,’ and he said, ‘I’m going to call you Mrs. C.’ From there we had a whole bunch of little things. We started naming our children. We started all of this stuff on the first day, so we really clicked.” Upcoming for the couple, Cannon will host World’s Got Talent, and Carey is releasing an album The Art of Letting Go in 2014.
