Mariah Carey, who threw the first bauble at Stonewall, with Santa (James Devaney/WireImage)
Mariah Carey, queen of Christmas, has revealed that some of her all-time favourite festive memories were down to her gay uncles.
In her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer explained that Christmases at her family home in Huntington, New York, were quite dysfunctional when she was growing up.
She explained that her mother, opera singer Patricia Carey, would invite her sister and brother for dinner. But by the end of the night “they would all explode in a torrent of verbal abuse”, leaving her pleading with them to stop arguing.
These experiences led to Mariah wishing for a happier home environment – like the one she had with her “guncles”.
Her gay uncles, Burt and Myron, are two of her favourite people, she wrote. Myron, a homemaker, made a long-lasting impression on her with what Carey called his impeccable dress sense and well-styled hair, and the two shared a special bond.
With Burt being a photographer, the trio would even stage Christmas-themed photoshoots.
The couple made the young Mariah feel at home, and one holiday she found herself stuck at their house when a storm hit. It gave her her first taste of a “homey Christmas”, sparking her life-long obsession with the holidays.
Mariah Carey is always trying to capture the Christmas she never had as a child.
The icon, who actually invented Christmas, wrote that her difficult upbringing is what inspired her almost child-like love for the season.
Mariah said that whether it be spending the holidays with her children or releasing festive albums, she feels as though she’s always trying to capture the happy holidays that she never had as a child.
Mariah’s book gives fans an intimate look at her life, relationships, hardships and music. But some things weren’t mentioned, for instance, Jennifer Lopez..
In an interview with the Guardian, Mariah was asked about a passage in which she refers to Lopez simply as a “female entertainer (whom I don’t know).”
This is, of course, a reference to her shady “I don’t know her” claim.
Mariah refused to acknowledge the question, which spoke a thousand words.