Mariah Carey claims American Idol was ‘abusive’

The ‘Hero’ hitmaker was a panellist on the talent show alongside Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and Randy Jackson for one season in 2012 and doesn’t have fond memories of the programme.

Speaking during the Television Critics Association press tour, where she was promoting her upcoming reality show ‘Mariah’s World’, she said of ‘American Idol’: “Oh, it was the most abusive experience.” And pressed on what she’d learned on the show, she simply lifted her glass of champagne and said:

“By the way you’ve just driven me to drink.”

In response to her claims, former ‘American Idol’ executive producer Nigel Lythgoe jokingly wondered whether Nicki – who repeatedly clashed with Mariah during their time behind the judges’ table – would be a guest on ‘Mariah’s World’.

He told Billboard:

“I’m looking forward to Mariah’s new series and wondering if Nicki Minaj may guest.”

The 46-year-old singer – who has five-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with estranged husband Nick Cannon and is engaged to billionaire James Packer – recently took a swipe at Nicki during an interview with ‘Watch What Happens Live’ star Andy Cohen.

Asked to reveal “three nice things” about the ‘Starships’ hitmaker, she paused before turning the question on the presenter, replying simply “Can you?”

Mariah was not part of the ‘American Idol’ finale when it ended for good earlier this year, and joked she was “heartbroken” not to be involved.

She said:

“I was heartbroken. I was in misery, no really, I was at home crying.”

And the ‘Fantasy’ hitmaker previously described working on the show with Nicki as being in “hell with Satan”.

She said:

“It was like hell going to work every day in hell with Satan…
“I’m just playing; it didn’t affect me that much.”