Mariah Carey blames “diva moments” on her mom

Speaking to Paper magazine, Mariah claims, “I’ve never had a diva moment.”  When the magazine expresses disbelief, she says, “Actually, I have had diva moments, and then people can’t handle it. I guess it’s a little intense, because I come from a true diva: My mother is an opera singer. And that’s a real diva, you know — Juilliard diva.”

She adds, laughing, “Other people that are like, ‘I’m a diva,’ it’s like, ‘Honey, you don’t know what a diva is, you didn’t grow up with my mom!’ And I mean it as a compliment, or I wouldn’t be the person I am without experiencing that.”

And when she talks in her “Mariah voice,” calling everyone “Dahhhhhling,” Mariah says, “I’m channeling my mother. Not that she says ‘dahling’ all the time, but, like, that voice is…it’s like I inadvertently do it.”

She adds, “I don’t do it to be disrespectful, I just do it and it just happens…I can’t fight it.”

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.