Mariah Carey made one ‘diva demand’ when appearing on Ian Wright’s talk show

Wright described his encounter with the singer-songwriter on The Graham Norton Show

Footballer Ian Wright has named the specific demand made by Mariah Carey when the singer made an appearance on his ITV chat show.

Carey featured as a guest on Friday Night’s All Wright, a 1998 series which saw the Arsenal player chair interviews with high-profile celebrities.

Appearing last night (22 January) on The Graham Norton Show alongside actor Carey Mulligan, Wright was asked about his history of “diva demands”.

“Well, I had Mariah Carey on,” he responded. “And the thing with Mariah Carey is that everybody was quite nervous about the fact she was coming on.”

“When she came, she didn’t have too many demands. The only thing she wanted… is she wanted to sit in my chair. She just wanted the main chair. She wanted to be on that side – she said, that’s her side.” 

However, the footballer added that he had a “really cool time” with the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer.

Reports of high-maintenance behaviour have often surrounded Carey’s career, with the artist addressing the reputation in an interview last year.

“You know what? I don’t give a s***,” Carey said. “I f***ing am high-maintenance because I deserve to be at this point. That may sound arrogant, but I hope you frame it within the context of coming from nothing.

“If I can’t be high-maintenance after working my ass off my entire life, oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t realise we all had to be low-maintenance. Hell, no! I was always high-maintenance, it’s just I didn’t have anyone to do the maintenance when I was growing up!”

The Graham Norton Show returns at 10.45pm on Friday 29 January on BBC One.