| +++ | MARIAH INFORMATION: FAMILY BACKGROUND |
NICHOLAS SCOTT CANNON (HUSBAND)
Nicholas Scott Cannon was born in San Diego, California to a 17 year old single mother, Beth Hackett, an accountant and James Cannon, a televangelist. During his childhood, Nick divided his time between living with his mother and grandmother in San Diego and with his father in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the age of 11 he began performing stand-up comedy and early TV production duties at his father’s cable access TV show called “A New Man”, where he warmed up the small audience. He and a childhood friend co-founded the rap duo Da Bomb Squad which went on tour as the opening acts for artists such as Will Smith, 98 Degrees and Montell Jordan. Nick was a precocious and talented youth who moved to Hollywood in his mid-teens and performed stand up comedy at the Comedy Club, The Improv and the Laugh Factory. He forged early friendships with comedians Chris Rock and Katt Williams, who later went on to star in the highly successful MTV sketch comedy show Wild-N-Out. Katt Williams recounts that in the early days Nick had to wait for his stage time in the kitchens of the clubs, because he was too young to be allowed in the main club areas.
Nick developed the idea for Wild-N-Out while driving from Hollywood back to visit his family in San Diego. He decided to capture the fun and excitement that he and his peers shared during backstage comedy battles and warm-ups. Nick Cannon created and executive produced the hilarious and innovative comedy sketch show Wild-N-Out: a perfect blend of comedy and hip hop. Later another of Nick’s “babies”, a show called Short Circuitz was added as a part of an MTV Nick Cannon Power Hour.
Early acting, writing and production efforts include “All That” and “The Nick Cannon Show” on Nickelodeon, where he served as writer, creator and executive producer. Nick’s first starring movie role was as Devon Miles in the hugely successful “Drumline”, the coming of age story of an undisciplined urban youth in a southern college band. Current movie projects still pending release include “Ball Don’t Lie”, “Day of the Dead”, and “American Son” for which he received the Cannes Film Festival’s Breakout Actor Of The Ear Award for 2007. Nick is also slated to star in the story of tennis legend Arthur Ashe.
Nick is also a youth empowerment advocate who performs speaking engagements at colleges and universities. He and Quincy Jones developed the Stop Hating Campaign which is a youth empowerment initiative promoting tolerance and respect amongst all cultures. T-shirts and other gear are sold at Nick’s PNB Nation clothing store in Hollywood and the majority of proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Club. Nick has also performed surrogate work for the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential campaign. Currently Nick is the chairman of TeenNick. He is also the development and creative consultant on the network. Additionally, he hosts his own radio program, a morning show (6-10AM) at 92.3 NOW FM (WXRK-FM) in New York.
Nick developed the idea for Wild-N-Out while driving from Hollywood back to visit his family in San Diego. He decided to capture the fun and excitement that he and his peers shared during backstage comedy battles and warm-ups. Nick Cannon created and executive produced the hilarious and innovative comedy sketch show Wild-N-Out: a perfect blend of comedy and hip hop. Later another of Nick’s “babies”, a show called Short Circuitz was added as a part of an MTV Nick Cannon Power Hour.
Early acting, writing and production efforts include “All That” and “The Nick Cannon Show” on Nickelodeon, where he served as writer, creator and executive producer. Nick’s first starring movie role was as Devon Miles in the hugely successful “Drumline”, the coming of age story of an undisciplined urban youth in a southern college band. Current movie projects still pending release include “Ball Don’t Lie”, “Day of the Dead”, and “American Son” for which he received the Cannes Film Festival’s Breakout Actor Of The Ear Award for 2007. Nick is also slated to star in the story of tennis legend Arthur Ashe.
Nick is also a youth empowerment advocate who performs speaking engagements at colleges and universities. He and Quincy Jones developed the Stop Hating Campaign which is a youth empowerment initiative promoting tolerance and respect amongst all cultures. T-shirts and other gear are sold at Nick’s PNB Nation clothing store in Hollywood and the majority of proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Club. Nick has also performed surrogate work for the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential campaign. Currently Nick is the chairman of TeenNick. He is also the development and creative consultant on the network. Additionally, he hosts his own radio program, a morning show (6-10AM) at 92.3 NOW FM (WXRK-FM) in New York.
MONROE & MOROCCAN SCOTT CANNON (CHILDREN A.K.A. DEM BABIES)
After much media speculation, Mariah confirmed on October 28, 2010, that she and Nick had experienced a miscarriage in December of 2008, but were currently were expecting their first child and on April 30, 2011, she gave birth to fraternal twins via C-section. The twins were named Monroe, after Marilyn Monroe, and Moroccan Scott, after the location in which Cannon proposed to Carey in her Moroccan-style room; Scott is Cannon's middle name and his grandmother's maiden name. In an interview, Mariah stated that her pregnancy was very difficult; she suffered from high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes. Before giving birth to the twins, she also said: "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 even go to the bathroom 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". The twins even have their own website. To view more photographs of them, please visit dembabies.com.
PATRICIA HICKEY (MOTHER)
Patricia Hickey is Mariah’s mother. Patricia’s parents moved from County Cork, Ireland to the United States while they were expecting a child. They settled in Springfield, Illinois. Unfortunately, a month before Patricia was born, her father passed away. Although she never knew her father, she inherited his musical gifts. In high school, she adventured in musical activities, but she was drawn to the opera world. Shortly after her graduation from high school, Patrica went to New York to earn a living as a singer. After the inevitable period of dues-paying and minimum-wage jobs, Patricia auditioned for and was accepted by the prestigious New York Opera company. The New York City Opera was still a young company, organized in 1943 during World War II as part of the City Center of Music and Drama. Its mission was to provide good opera at affordable prices. It quickly acquired a reputation for both the quality and range of its productions, as it began to offer premieres of new American works as revivals of classical pieces. In the late sixties, Patricia achieved some success in the operatic world, when she became a soloist in the company and worked with such world famous performers as Beverly Sills.
Not long after Patricia joined the New York Opera company, Alfred Roy Carey entered her life. Mariah told Interview magazine how her mother met her father. “She was stalking Yul Brynner, she and her friend were living in Brooklyn Heights at the time. I believe Yul Brynner either lived in Brooklyn Heights at one point or was seen around the neighborhood. My mother and her friends were trying to spot stars. My father had been in the army so he had shaved his head and he had this old Porsche that he would drive around Brooklyn. He was black, but he was light-skinned, and they thought he was Yul Brynner. But one of the girls who was with them said, ‘That ain’t nobody but Roy Carey.’ His real name was Alfred Roy, but he usually went by Roy.”
After a relatively short courtship, Afred Roy married Patricia in New York City in 1960. As a mixed couple, there was a lot of intolerance from blacks and whites alike. Mariah told Jet magazine: “There was a lot of racism in the sixties and seventies. My brother and sister and I were the products of forbidden love.” Years later, Mariah would recall tales of the racial bigotry her parents had experienced in the years before she was born. “From the start, my mother’s family basically disowned her when she married my father,” she told Oprah. “Her mother made her pretend she wasn’t married. When she came to family events, she had to come alone and pretend she was single. All sorts of crazy things happened. Their car got blown up, and their dogs were poisoned.”
Patricia and Alfred had not been married long when Patricia gave birth to their first child, a son named Morgan. A year after Morgan was born, Patricia gave birth to a second child, a girl named Alison. By 1968, Alfred Roy and Patricia had long decided that two children were enough, and so they were surprised when Patricia found herself pregnant again. On March 27, 1970, Mariah “The Voice” Carey was born.
The frustration of the intolerance and the constant moves that the family faced had made just getting through each day an ordeal. Tensions in the household continued to escalate and finally, in 1973, Alfred Roy and Patricia divorced. Alison went to live with her father, while Morgan and Mariah remained with their mother. Suddenly, not only Mariah’s father was gone, but also her older sister. Patricia remarried Joseph Vain, however, this marriage wasn’t destined to last either and the divorce between the couple became final in 1992.
In 2010 Mariah released her second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, which contained a critically acclaimed collaboration with Patricia. O' Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus featured Patricia's operatic vocals along side Mariah's signature melismatic style. The song was released as a promotional single, receiving a home move style video treatment. It was performed live twice in 2010 with Patricia joining Mariah on her ABC Christmas special.
Not long after Patricia joined the New York Opera company, Alfred Roy Carey entered her life. Mariah told Interview magazine how her mother met her father. “She was stalking Yul Brynner, she and her friend were living in Brooklyn Heights at the time. I believe Yul Brynner either lived in Brooklyn Heights at one point or was seen around the neighborhood. My mother and her friends were trying to spot stars. My father had been in the army so he had shaved his head and he had this old Porsche that he would drive around Brooklyn. He was black, but he was light-skinned, and they thought he was Yul Brynner. But one of the girls who was with them said, ‘That ain’t nobody but Roy Carey.’ His real name was Alfred Roy, but he usually went by Roy.”
After a relatively short courtship, Afred Roy married Patricia in New York City in 1960. As a mixed couple, there was a lot of intolerance from blacks and whites alike. Mariah told Jet magazine: “There was a lot of racism in the sixties and seventies. My brother and sister and I were the products of forbidden love.” Years later, Mariah would recall tales of the racial bigotry her parents had experienced in the years before she was born. “From the start, my mother’s family basically disowned her when she married my father,” she told Oprah. “Her mother made her pretend she wasn’t married. When she came to family events, she had to come alone and pretend she was single. All sorts of crazy things happened. Their car got blown up, and their dogs were poisoned.”
Patricia and Alfred had not been married long when Patricia gave birth to their first child, a son named Morgan. A year after Morgan was born, Patricia gave birth to a second child, a girl named Alison. By 1968, Alfred Roy and Patricia had long decided that two children were enough, and so they were surprised when Patricia found herself pregnant again. On March 27, 1970, Mariah “The Voice” Carey was born.
The frustration of the intolerance and the constant moves that the family faced had made just getting through each day an ordeal. Tensions in the household continued to escalate and finally, in 1973, Alfred Roy and Patricia divorced. Alison went to live with her father, while Morgan and Mariah remained with their mother. Suddenly, not only Mariah’s father was gone, but also her older sister. Patricia remarried Joseph Vain, however, this marriage wasn’t destined to last either and the divorce between the couple became final in 1992.
In 2010 Mariah released her second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, which contained a critically acclaimed collaboration with Patricia. O' Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus featured Patricia's operatic vocals along side Mariah's signature melismatic style. The song was released as a promotional single, receiving a home move style video treatment. It was performed live twice in 2010 with Patricia joining Mariah on her ABC Christmas special.
ALFRED ROY CAREY (FATHER)
Alfred Roy was Mariah’s father. His family name is Nuñez (some sources say his name is Nunes). After his family immigrated from Venezuela to the United States, his father American-ized his name to Carey because it was easier to pronounce. He married an African American girl who was born in Alabama. Alfred Roy was born in 1929. After some initial struggles, the family prospered sufficiently to allow young Alfred to go to college where he put his love of math and science to good use, becoming an aeronautical engineer. After a relatively short courtship, Afred Roy married Patricia Hickey in New York City in 1960. They had three children together: Morgan, Alison and Mariah. In 1973, Alfred Roy and Patricia divorced. Alison went to live with her father, while Morgan and Mariah remained with their mother. Suddenly, not only Mariah’s father was gone, but also her older sister. Initially, Alfred Roy would see his children on a weekly basis, but these visits soon became less frequent and eventually stopped when he got a job in Washington, DC. Mariah often said that she and her father “had a good relationship for about a minute after the divorce”. She elaborated, “He’s a good person, I don’t have anything against him. It’s just very difficult growing up in a divorced family. The tension, anger, and bitterness between the parents is often put off on the children. And because I was so young when they divorced, it was a major split for me.” Alfred Roy and Mariah barely kept in touch.
For a long time the divorce colored her attitude towards the institution of marriage. “That made me feel very anti-marriage. I thought that I’d never marry,” Mariah stated. “Everyone wishes they had the Brady Bunch family. But it’s not reality.” Mariah discovered in her visits with her father that they really had very little in common. His talents as a mathematician weren’t passed on to his youngest daughter, and he didn’t share her love of music. However, Mariah did retain some found memories of the time they spent together when she was young. For all the problems, conflicts, and arguments between Patricia and Alfred Roy, Patricia never tried to turn the children against their father. Mariah recounted, “Lucky for me, my mother never said anything negative about my father. She never discouraged me from having a good feeling about him. She always taught me to believe in myself, to love all the things I am. In that sense I’m very lucky, because I could have been a very screwed-up person.”
A few years before his death, Mariah tracked down her father, and she was relieved she did. “When you grow up with one parent, you get one side of the story. I’m not saying there was a deliberate thing that happened, but that’s just the way it is. I was fortunate to find out things I never knew about my father. For one thing, I never knew he was in touch with my music and my career. He wrote me a letter: ‘It doesn’t matter whatever is happening, you’ve always been a star to me, even before anybody knew who you were.’ It meant so much to me. I never knew he was sentimental. I was grateful to be able to spend time with him before he got sick. It was unfortunate that I lost him so soon after, but I was grateful for the time I was able to spend with him.” Alfred Roy died of cancer on July 4, 2002 while Mariah was holding his hand. Her album Charmbracelet contains a song dedicated to him entitled Sunflowers For Alfred Roy.
For a long time the divorce colored her attitude towards the institution of marriage. “That made me feel very anti-marriage. I thought that I’d never marry,” Mariah stated. “Everyone wishes they had the Brady Bunch family. But it’s not reality.” Mariah discovered in her visits with her father that they really had very little in common. His talents as a mathematician weren’t passed on to his youngest daughter, and he didn’t share her love of music. However, Mariah did retain some found memories of the time they spent together when she was young. For all the problems, conflicts, and arguments between Patricia and Alfred Roy, Patricia never tried to turn the children against their father. Mariah recounted, “Lucky for me, my mother never said anything negative about my father. She never discouraged me from having a good feeling about him. She always taught me to believe in myself, to love all the things I am. In that sense I’m very lucky, because I could have been a very screwed-up person.”
A few years before his death, Mariah tracked down her father, and she was relieved she did. “When you grow up with one parent, you get one side of the story. I’m not saying there was a deliberate thing that happened, but that’s just the way it is. I was fortunate to find out things I never knew about my father. For one thing, I never knew he was in touch with my music and my career. He wrote me a letter: ‘It doesn’t matter whatever is happening, you’ve always been a star to me, even before anybody knew who you were.’ It meant so much to me. I never knew he was sentimental. I was grateful to be able to spend time with him before he got sick. It was unfortunate that I lost him so soon after, but I was grateful for the time I was able to spend with him.” Alfred Roy died of cancer on July 4, 2002 while Mariah was holding his hand. Her album Charmbracelet contains a song dedicated to him entitled Sunflowers For Alfred Roy.
MORGAN CAREY (BROTHER)
Morgan Carey is the elder brother of Mariah. Alfred Roy Carey and Patricia Hickey had not been married long when Patricia gave birth to their first child, a son named Morgan. Morgan used to suffer from epilepsy and one leg was an inch shorter than the other. His serious epileptic fits caused him to have some relationship problems. He eventually turned to drugs and delinquency, but fortunately he pulled through it and became a key figure in Mariah’s career. In the beginning of her career, Mariah always referred to her brother as “the only man in my life”. Morgan told Rashmi Shastri: “I was trying to help my sister break through at the beginning and get her into the game. A good friend of mine, Gavin Christopher, cut her first demo and I later hired Ben Marguiles to work with her. They went on to write a number of the hits on her first album together. I actually walked her by the hand up to Seymour Stein’s office at Sire with that demo. Back then I knew a lot of industry people from having worked in the clubs so I played her stuff for anybody I knew who would listen; Billy Idol, Nona Hendryx, Tina B, The System, etc. Not long after, Mariah and Tommy (Mottola) got together and it went where it went.”
In the beginning, Morgan was a fitness instructor living in Los Angeles (he fitted out the fitness room in Mariah’s penthouse apartment, however Mariah confessed that she didn’t use it very often). In 2007, he became the executive of the YG label and the manager of Korean Reggae artist Skull, who had a Billboard hit with the song “Boom di boom di”.
In the beginning, Morgan was a fitness instructor living in Los Angeles (he fitted out the fitness room in Mariah’s penthouse apartment, however Mariah confessed that she didn’t use it very often). In 2007, he became the executive of the YG label and the manager of Korean Reggae artist Skull, who had a Billboard hit with the song “Boom di boom di”.
ALISON CAREY SCOTT (SISTER)
Alison Carey is Mariah’s older sister. A year after Morgan was born, Patricia Hickey gave birth to a second child, a girl named Alison (sometimes sources say incorrectly Allison). Alison got married at an early age and gave birth to her first child (Shawn) when she was only 18. Ten years later, she gave birth to her other child, Michael. Shawn grew up with his father Richard. His parents divorced when he was only two. Mariah and Shawn are very close. Mariah actually gave him some financial support for his studies. Shawn is very attached to Mariah because she taught him that he could do whatever he wanted in life, provided that he had faith in it. Shawn played in his college football team, and he owns two apartments, one in Boston and an other in New York. Shawn can also be seen in the music for the 2000 single “Can’t Take That Away (Mariah’s Theme)” off the album “Rainbow”.
Michael is Shawn’s half brother. Alison got infected with the HIV virus when Michael was born. “When I found out she had AIDS, I must have cried for days,” Mariah confessed to Bravo magazine not too long after she discovered her sister had contracted the incurable and ultimately fatal disease. When she stopped crying, Mariah had to deal with a conflicting array of emotions over her sister and her plight. A big part of her was just plain sad. She was also forgiving of Alison’s choices and the mistakes that had led her to prostitution and drugs and which had finally brought her to this point. Mariah was not finding it difficult to comprehend that her sister was experiencing such a difficult time.
Making matters worse was the fact that Alison was so wrapped up in her disease, continued drug dependency, and her downward spiraling lifestyle that she was totally incapable of taking care of Michael. After much hand-wringing and soul-searching, Mariah and her mother tried to get her sister some help. They offered to pay for Alison to get into a drug-treatment program and to get her AIDS counseling so that she could learn to live with the disease and possibly get some treatment. However, in the midst of her self-pity and misdirected anger toward her family – in particular Mariah – she wanted no part of their help. When she refused to get treatment for her myriad of problems, Mariah and Patricia took the next, admittedly drastic, step and arranged for Michael to come and live with Patricia. However, this intervention came at a heavy price. The long-simmering anger and jealousy that Alison directed at Mariah for what she felt was the favoritism shown her younger sister because of her talent finally boiled over. Despite Mariah’s public insistence that they were patching things up, the relationship between the two sisters was, for all intents and purposes, over. “I haven’t spoken to my sister in a long time, but I hope she’s well,” Mariah told Time magazine. “But everything seems to have worked itself out.”
Mariah and her mother brought many lawsuits against Alison in order to get joint custody of Michael. They wanted him to grow up in a sheltered environment, away from his drug-addicted mom. Eventually, Patricia was given custody of Michael. He made a cameo in “Glitter”, he’s the boy who’s talking on the phone. Dice kicks him out when Billie suddenly gets out of the cab after having heard her song on the radio for the first time.
Alison’s life has never been a bed of roses. In June 2006, Alison was caught in a sting operation at the West Shore Marina in Huntington, Long Island, where she was booked for her second prostitution offense. Alison plead guilty and got free on probation. She allegedly said that she was prostituting herself to financially help Mariah to become famous. It is said that she tried unsuccessfully to shop around a tell-all book.
Michael is Shawn’s half brother. Alison got infected with the HIV virus when Michael was born. “When I found out she had AIDS, I must have cried for days,” Mariah confessed to Bravo magazine not too long after she discovered her sister had contracted the incurable and ultimately fatal disease. When she stopped crying, Mariah had to deal with a conflicting array of emotions over her sister and her plight. A big part of her was just plain sad. She was also forgiving of Alison’s choices and the mistakes that had led her to prostitution and drugs and which had finally brought her to this point. Mariah was not finding it difficult to comprehend that her sister was experiencing such a difficult time.
Making matters worse was the fact that Alison was so wrapped up in her disease, continued drug dependency, and her downward spiraling lifestyle that she was totally incapable of taking care of Michael. After much hand-wringing and soul-searching, Mariah and her mother tried to get her sister some help. They offered to pay for Alison to get into a drug-treatment program and to get her AIDS counseling so that she could learn to live with the disease and possibly get some treatment. However, in the midst of her self-pity and misdirected anger toward her family – in particular Mariah – she wanted no part of their help. When she refused to get treatment for her myriad of problems, Mariah and Patricia took the next, admittedly drastic, step and arranged for Michael to come and live with Patricia. However, this intervention came at a heavy price. The long-simmering anger and jealousy that Alison directed at Mariah for what she felt was the favoritism shown her younger sister because of her talent finally boiled over. Despite Mariah’s public insistence that they were patching things up, the relationship between the two sisters was, for all intents and purposes, over. “I haven’t spoken to my sister in a long time, but I hope she’s well,” Mariah told Time magazine. “But everything seems to have worked itself out.”
Mariah and her mother brought many lawsuits against Alison in order to get joint custody of Michael. They wanted him to grow up in a sheltered environment, away from his drug-addicted mom. Eventually, Patricia was given custody of Michael. He made a cameo in “Glitter”, he’s the boy who’s talking on the phone. Dice kicks him out when Billie suddenly gets out of the cab after having heard her song on the radio for the first time.
Alison’s life has never been a bed of roses. In June 2006, Alison was caught in a sting operation at the West Shore Marina in Huntington, Long Island, where she was booked for her second prostitution offense. Alison plead guilty and got free on probation. She allegedly said that she was prostituting herself to financially help Mariah to become famous. It is said that she tried unsuccessfully to shop around a tell-all book.
SHAWN MCDONALD (NEPHEW)
Shawn is the older of Alison's two children and graduated from Havard’s Law School in 2002. He and Mariah are not only aunt and nephew, they are more like brother and sister – best friends. He accompanied her to several events, like the Operation Smile Gala 2004. He was also featured in the music video for “Can’t Take That Away (Mariah’s Theme)”. Shawn is a part of Mariah’s tight knit circle of friends/family. He can usually be seen in candid photos with Mariah and their friends during holiday celebrations among other private and sometimes professional events. He is also very outspoken about the racial struggles that he shares with Mariah. “Early on people didn’t know what to make of her,” McDonald remembers. “Some still don’t understand she’s multiracial.”
MICHAEL SCOTT (NEPHEW)
Michael was featured in the movie “Glitter” (the boy on the public phone booth, when they heard the song the first time on the radio) and in the film Wise Girls (the bus boy in the restaurant near the end of the movie). Very little is known about Michael aside from his relation to Mariah and the fact that he was the subject of a vicious custody battle between Mariah, her mother, Patricia and Alison. Mariah and her mother felt Michael should grow up in a healthier environment opposed to the one of drug addiction and prostitution his mother Alison offered. Unfortunately the legal battle for her nephew ruined the already suffering relationship between Mariah and her sister. Although Mariah and Alison haven’t spoken in years, she remains close to her other nephew, Michael.
ROBERTO NUNEZ & ADDIE COLE (PATERNAL GRANDPA AND GRANDMA)
There is nothing known about Mariah’s grandparents aside from her grandfather’s name and the fact that they were her father, Alfred Roy’s parents. These are the only two photos that have been made available online for the fans. They are lifted from Mariah’s music video for Bye Bye, off of the album “E=MC2″, which was released in 2008.
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