Mariah Carey clarifies Meghan Markle ‘diva’ comment

‘Yes! I called her a diva, in the most fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering meaning of the word!!!’ Carey tweeted

Mariah Carey has further clarified her use of the term “diva” to describe Meghan Markle on her new Spotify podcast.

In the second episode of the podcast, Archetypes, Carey, 53, said: “You give us diva moments sometimes Meghan.”

The comment appeared to take Markle by surprise, who responded: “I do? What kind of diva moments do I give you?” To which Carey replied that it was mostly down to “the look”.

On Friday (2 September), Carey shared a link to the podcast episode and addressed the comment, writing: “Really enjoyed talking to Duchess and Diva Meghan Markle about ‘The Duality of Diva’.

“Yes! I called her a diva, in the most fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering meaning of the word!!!”

Later in the podcast, Markle, 41, had said: “I didn’t see that coming.”

“But that aside, it [the interview with Carey] was all going swimmingly, I mean really well. Until that moment happened, which I don’t know about you, but it stopped me in my tracks… when she called me a diva!”

Mariah Carey tweet (Twitter)

She continued: “You couldn’t see me, obviously, but I started to sweat a little bit. I started squirming in my chair in this quiet revolt, like, wait, wait, no, what? How? But? How could you? That’s not true, that’s not… Why would you say that?

“My mind genuinely was just spinning with what nonsense she must have read or clicked on to make her say that. I just kept thinking, in that moment, was my girl crush coming to a quick demise? Does she actually not see me?”

Markle added that Carey “must have felt” her nervous laughter as she jumped in to clarify what she meant.

“When she said diva, she was talking about the way that I dress, the posture, the clothing, the quote-unquote, fabulousness as she sees it,” she said.

“She meant diva as a compliment. But I heard it as a dig. I heard it as the word diva, as I think of it. But, in that moment, as she explained to me, she meant it as chic, as aspirational. And how one very charged word can mean something different for each of us, it’s mind-blowing to me.”

The interview comes one week after Markle launched Archetypes on Spotify with her first guest, Serena Williams.

The pair spoke about motherhood, ambition, and a fire that broke out in baby Archie’s nursery while Markle was on a royal tour of South Africa in 2019.

Next week’s guest will be the actor, comedian, writer, director and producer Mindy Kaling.