Mariah Carey admits she “can’t help” being a diva

Diva life didn’t choose Mariah Carey; Mariah Carey chose the life of a diva.

“There are things people don’t realize because that diva in quotes is always what people see first.” – Five-time Grammy Award winner, 52, said W Magazine in a phone interview published Friday — a conversation she conducted while in a bubble bath.

“Yes, I play it. And yes, some of it is true. I can’t help it,” she explained. “For example, what do you do if you grew up with an opera singer for your mother who went to Juilliard and made her debut at Lincoln Center?”

Patricia Carey – who is white – performed with the New York City Opera. Alfred Roy Carey – a black Hispanic – was an aerospace engineer.

According to their superstar daughter, the prima donna persona is partly an “attachment” and partly a “reaction” to her upbringing.

Mariah recalled that as a bi-racial girl, she grew up in the neighborhood of New York where she grew up “different”, and described her childhood as “extremely dysfunctional … to the point that it’s shocking to [she] came out of it at all.”

The music icon – who brought the spirit of her favorite holidays to this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade wearing a tiara and ball gown – said the Christmas she spent as a child was far from idyllic.

“People think I had a princess life or something, kind of a fairy-tale existence where I just emerged saying, ‘Here I am! That’s not the case,” she told the magazine.

“But when you grow up with a fucked up life and then you’re able to undergo a transformation where you can make your life what you want it to be? It is a joy for me,” she explained. “That’s why I want my children to have everything they can have.”

Mariah – whose 11-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe, stole the show during Thursday’s performance of “All I Want For Christmas” – channeled those desires into a children’s book about a young girl named Little Mariah. Her name is “Christmas Princess”.

“Not because I think I am Christmas princess or any of those things I’ve never called myself,” she made sure to note down the title of the book, comically ignoring her recently rejected “Queen of Christmas” trademark application.

On naming the book star after Little Mariah, the singer-songwriter explained, “We’re talking about a little girl who rises above her circumstances and ultimately helps other people through music.”