Mariah Carey visited “Good Morning America” this morning to discuss her new healthy heart campaign, husband Nick Cannon’s ongoing health issues, and the unexpected death of friend Whitney Houston.
Carey arrived at the New York studio in dark, over-sized shades, a black form fitting dress with trendy Louboutin slingback heels—at least six inches—in nude and white, but wasn’t too swanky not to sign autographs for adoring fans as she made her way inside.
Robin Roberts went straight for the gusto and asked how the “We Belong Together” singer was coping with the untimely death of Houston.
“I don’t think people could ever understand our relationship. I’m almost incapable of talking about it still,” Mariah said. “There was always this supposed rivalry in the beginning and then we did this duet (at the 1999 Oscars) and we became friends. I saw her towards the end. I loved her. It’s very heavy emotionally.”
Visibly emotional she culled over the home going services she attended for the late singer last Saturday instead, “It was great,” she said of the nearly four-hour service. ”Such a class act, the way she went out and the way her family dealt with it.”
Just the day before her friend’s shocking death, her husband was hospitalized for blood clots in his lungs. The hospitalization was the second time that the public knew of Nick’s health concerns, but Carey seemed to imply there may have been more.
“We didn’t know how big a deal it was at that moment,” Carey said of Cannon’s initial hospitalization in January. “It was a gradual thing. We ended up in a couple hospitals this year already. Now, he is doing better and the thing is, he’s a strong, healthy person and it’s about changing the lifestyle.”
Nick made the decision to cut back on his working schedule which his doctors attributed to his poor health.
“I feel a little bit awkward because I don’t know exactly what he was revealing when he talked to people, but the best thing, I think, was his choice he made to leave his radio show and concentrate on America’s Got Talent and Up All Night.”
“It’s about changing the lifestyle…and just an awareness of what can really happen to you no matter how young or in great shape you are,” she said. “I think, like he always does, he’s going to turn something that happened into a positive thing.”
Besides accommodating her husband, the two have 10-month-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe, who she has to see after, but is unapologetic about having help with the babies.
“I’m not going to say I don’t have help,” she said. “I do try to spend as much time with them as I can.”
Mariah’s pregnancy gave her her own health scare when she learned she had both gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.
“When you carry twins that is a whole other thing so, physically, I went through it,” she said of her pregnancy. “I had never dealt with a physical thing like that.”
And because of her newly-found diagnosis, she became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, losing30 pounds on the diet. The “Always Be My Baby” singer co-directs and stars in a newly released public service announcement marking February as Heart Awareness Month.
Take care of yourselves Mariah and Nick!
