When thinking of the term “diva,” pop superstar Mariah Carey is likely an automatic thought for many. Of course, Carey has earned the title after selling many millions of records and winning just about every music-oriented award under the sun, which came after she'd faced great adversity early on in life. Her diva-like persona tends to blur the line between authentic and self-aware sometimes, but at this point, the Grammy queen can obviously recognize another diva from a mile away. To that end, she called out Meghan Markle for displaying such behavior despite the Suits vet not necessarily relating to that concept.
The diva convo started as Meghan Markle and Mariah Carey conversed about dealing with hair issues as biracial women on the former’s Archetypes podcast. Markle recalled being mesmerized while watching Carey’s 1993 “Dreamlover” music video, saying it was more "girl-next-door" than anything screaming “diva,” which the singer-songwriter attributed to her hair playing into her ethnic ambiguity at the time. The “All I Want for Christmas is You” vocalist spilled neither white nor Black hairstylists knew how to work her naturally curly tresses, and recalled white hairdressers trying things that flat out didn’t work, while ethnic hairdressers used too much product. Her hair plight extended back to her childhood as her white mother didn’t know how to properly care for Carey’s hair. Markle understood Carey’s conundrum as she recalled using heavy products while her grandmother combed through her thick and curly hair.
Someone needing to put that much effort into excelling at hairstyles certain deserves a place on the diva mantle, and the pair of entertainers later returned to the topic, with Carey saying she has long leaned into her high-maintenance persona as both a tribute to her opera-singing mother and for a bit for laugh. As the conversation turned to her infamous 2002 MTV Cribs episode, Markle recalled people taking the episode far too seriously concerning the “My All” singer playing into the mega-diva persona. The pop superstar seemed frustrated that viewers didn’t get the joke as she recalled growing up in “plenty shacks” during her childhood. Following Carey’s remarks, the actress took up for the music icon by saying:
And I think that's really important for people to remember, that there might be this persona, and yes the diva thing we can play into. I mean, it's not something that I connect to, but for you, it’s been a huge part of your…
Hold up, hold up, hold up. After hearing Meghan Markle’s words, Mariah Carey wasn’t about to let the Duchess of Sussex get by without acknowledging her own “diva” moments, which led to an interesting back and forth between the Grammy winner and the Hollywood actress.
- Carey: You give us diva moments sometimes, Megan. Don’t even act like…
- Markle: What kind of Diva moments do I give you? Do you see me right now?
- Carey: It’s also the visual. It’s the visual! A lot of it’s the visual. Because...
- Markle: See, that’s the thing. I associate it differently.
- Carey: I know, but let’s pretend that you weren’t so beautiful and didn’t have the whole thing, and didn’t often have gorgeous ensembles. You wouldn’t get maybe as much diva stuff. I don’t care. I’m like, ‘When I can, I give you diva.’
The two women had a full-circle moment as Mariah Carey came back to the original “Dreamlover” imagery that drew Meghan Markle's adoration, and was candid in admitting she and her record label had conflicting ideas of what her public image should be.
We started out at Dreamlover with the curly hair, the plaid shirts, the thing, that was what they wanted from me. They wanted girl next door. So, I always admired the Marilyn Monroes, the Sophia Lorens, and of course, all the beautiful Black actresses that never got theirs. Of course, I wanted to be that glamorous, because I felt like an ugly little girl because I did not fit in.
It appeared the pop music icon’s inner Marilyn was shelved away in the early days as she garnered attention as an arguably more marketable pop star leaning into racial ambiguity. Mariah Carey was dealing with image and self-esteem issues during that relatively quick rise to stardom, and hiding away her glamorous true ambitions didn’t help. Luckily, Carey was able to take control of her career and showed off her glamorous side to the masses, even when it meant getting quite feisty.
As Mariah Carey continues to live her best diva life, fans can look forward to seeing if her signature Christmas song “All I Want For Christmas is You” will hit number once again this year. Unfortunately, Carey and the Christmas staple are the subjects of a $20 million suit claiming the pop star copied a similarly-titled country song. Still, she's aiming to copyright the moniker Queen of Christmas based on the song's massive success, though it's unclear if that'll ever happen.
You can check out Ryan Reynold’s obsession with Mariah Carey in the comedy Free Guy by subscribing to HBO Max, but if you want to hear the full conversation between Carey and Meghan Markle, which is more likely, just listen to Archetypes on Spotify. While Markle isn’t acting right now, fans can check out some of her more forgotten roles before she became British royalty.
