Last Friday, Oct. 21, fans of Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon finally got their long-held wish when the glowing power couple let TV cameras and Barbara Walters into their home and introduced the world to their already famous twins, Monroe and Moroccan Scott on “20/20” and spoke about everything from their marriage to Carey’s troubled pregnancy to their hopes for their kids.
Speaking on their Hollywood love affair, Cannon says that he’s always had a thing for Carey, but according to his superstar wife, she had a hard time accepting his advances and letting go of the scars of her failed marriage with record executive Tommy Motola in 1998.
“Different people would tell me, ‘This dude, Nick Cannon, likes you,’ and I would always be like, ‘yeah yeah yeah.’ I never believe that anybody really likes me. I always think it’s some kind of joke or something,” explained Carey.
When asked about her hesitance to marry again, the singer replied, “Initially I was afraid of the concept of marriage [again],” she said. “But this is a different situation and a different time in my life and nobody will ever be able to steal my spirit ever again. So, I’m just happy to be in love and be here.”
Carey and Cannon’s love famously spawned the already world-famous twins, Monroe and Moroccan Scott. During her much-hyped pregnancy, Carey was the talk of the town with fans and media clamoring to applaud the singer as well as grab any details about her twin bundles of joy. But unbeknownst to many, Carey’s pregnancy was wrought with illness as she suffered from pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. Nearing the 30-week mark, the 40-year-old singer struggled to avoid an early labor which could have proved deadly for the couple’s twins.
“I don’t think I understood the enormity or the magnitude of what it really does to your body,” she explained. “It’s not just, oh you don’t look pretty and you have a bump,” said Carey,
The singer continued, “I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to walk properly again. It was a huge strain. I would sit and then someone would have to help me up,” “I couldn’t go even to the loo by myself. It was just like, ‘What are we doing? Are we going to the hospital? No, I’m gonna stick it out, I’m gonna keep taking this medicine to keep these babies in … I made it to 35 weeks and then the doctor said it wasn’t safe anymore.”
Thankfully, Carey and Cannon welcomed their twins into the world on 2011, in celebrity-style to the tune of a live recording of Carey’s “Fantasy.” And as Carey explains in the interview, the babies are developing a growing love for music.
“I will say they really respond to music,” Who, at one point in the program, sings the kids a lullaby of “We Belong Together.”
And while Carey is enthusiastic about the babies musical affinity, Cannon, who’s famously shut down ideas of turning the kids into child superstars, explains again that he wants a normal life of blue- and white-collar success for Monroe and Roc.
“I think society puts too much on entertainment and entertainers. They praise them like they’re royalty, especially in America, when it should really be about the teachers or the doctors,” said Cannon, before revealing a desire to nurture their kids artistic sides. “I want them to be able to sing as beautifully as their mother. I want them to be able to play instruments and everything but I want them to go get a Ph.D.”
Whatever the future may hold for Monroe and Roc, for now, things are blissful for the happy family.
“My family gives me everything. Unconditional love just means the world to me. It’s just…completion,” remarks a happy Cannon, before his wife echoed a similar sentiment of love. “It’s just love. It’s a beautiful place to be,” explained Carey.
– nicholas robinson
