Mariah Carey Is Happier Than Ever at 46: Here's Why Her Charmed Midlife Is the Opposite of a Crisis

A writer who has spent time at home and abroad with Mimi, who turned 46 on Sunday, digs back into their most intimate conversations -- and says the star is finally ready for her charmed life to begin.


Imagine, if you will, the burden of being bombshell Mariah Carey in the bedroom.

"I'd only been with one person in my life," Carey, a newly single woman after the end of her five-year marriage to former longtime head of Sony Music Entertainment Tommy Mottola, told me back in 1999.

Following that divorce, she said, "I was being linked to all these men, and I was feeling totally insecure about embarking on any new relationships, because I felt maybe I wasn't good enough. I felt that I didn't have enough experience. And I still have that sort of thing. I get close to people, I'm friends with people, I'll stay with people, but I'm very guarded in terms of whom I let into my … personal space."


"It all stems from deep-rooted stuff that I saw growing up," Carey said, presumably referring to her older sister's teenage pregnancy and reported struggles with drug addiction and prostitution, "and I don't talk about it because it's not my place."

"It's definitely this self-protective thing that I have," the GRAMMY winner shared. "I'm not, like, rip-roaring, wild, living it up" -- she clapped her hands for emphasis -- "with a million guys, because that's not me. And it's not safe. I guess I'm sort of a contradiction in terms, because I do feel it's OK to be sexy and free, but there's a difference between sexy and…promiscuous." She also admitted at the time: "I don't know what the hell a date is."