Mariah Carey: ‘I Didn’t Have Enough Food’ As A Kid

Mariah Carey may be one of the most successful pop musicians of all time, but there was a time when she went to bed hungry.

“I didn’t have the money to get… even really enough food,” she told Fashion Rocks magazine of her childhood.

Mariah, who was raised by a single mother, says the need for bare necessities helped drive her to stardom. The singer notched her 18th number one single with “Touch My Body” earlier this year, passing Elvis Presley’s tally.

“From the time I was little, I had such a huge desire, and such an enormous ambition,” she said.

This year has been more than just successful on the recording end for Mariah. She wed boyfriend Nick Cannon in May, and she told the special edition of the best qualities about her new husband, is how he comforts her like her mom.

“When I was a kid there was an ice storm in the suburbs… We went to Manhattan to stay with a friend of my mom’s. There was nobody on the road. It was this moment that could’ve been scary for a kid, but she made it festive,” Mariah recounted. “That’s what Nick is like. He takes the hard part of a situation and makes it celebratory.”