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Nick Cannon opens up about marriage to Mariah Carey: 'I can’t hold a candle to that woman'

3:23
Mariah Carey named a 2020 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee
Gregg Deguire/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE
ByGeorge Costantino
June 17, 2020, 7:39 PM

Nick Cannon recently opened up about his relationship with ex-wife Mariah Carey.

The 39-year-old host of MTV’s "Wild ’n Out" and NBC’s "The Masked Singer" was always focused on building his own career but he told Variety their marriage worked because he was comfortable with Mariah dominating the spotlight.

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“I always used to say it worked so well because it was a healthy balance,” he explained. “I had no problem falling back. It was never a competition with me. It was like, ‘I’ll turn mine off so she can turn hers on.’ I was comfortable in myself and who I was.”

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Cannon’s marriage to the pop superstar, 50, in 2008 after a brief courtship shocked family and friends but he insists communication was never a problem for them.

“I can’t ever remember us having arguments and there being negative energy of ‘This isn’t working’ and all of that stuff,” he said. “We had very sensible conversations.”

Additionally, Cannon's ego wasn’t a factor in their eventual split. The couple divorced in 2016.

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“My ego outside the house was grand but in the house it was healthy. I was there to be in support of whatever she wanted to do,” the "Drumline" star said. “I mean, it’s Mariah Carey. How am I supposed to be? She’s one of the most talented women to ever [be on] this planet. I can’t hold a candle to that woman.”

The two still continue to co-parent their 9-year-old twins, daughter Monroe and son Moroccan.

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