Mariah Carey Was “Extremely Uncomfortable” When Ellen DeGeneres Outed Her Early Pregnancy

Amid allegations surrounding The Ellen DeGeneres Show for fostering a toxic work environment, Mariah Carey opened up about her own, “extremely uncomfortable” experience as a guest on the show in 2008. During that appearance, DeGeneres prematurely outed the singer’s pregnancy after forcing Carey to take a sip of champagne.

“I was extremely uncomfortable with that moment is all I can say. And I really have had a hard time grappling with the aftermath,” Carey said in a new Vulture profile. Carey also shared that she “wasn’t ready to tell anyone” that she was pregnant and she later suffered a miscarriage.

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At the time of the interview, rumors had surfaced that Carey and her then-husband, Nick Cannon, were expecting a baby, though Carey hadn’t yet confirmed the pregnancy. In the interview, DeGeneres poured Carey a glass of “apple cider.” When Carey asked to be sure it’s apple cider, not champagne, DeGeneres said, “I promise I would not do that to you. Why would I do that to you? It’s apple cider. If you’re having a baby, I’m not gonna give you anything else.” When Carey faked taking a sip, DeGeneres said, “You’re pregnant!”

Throughout the interview, DeGeneres continued to push a clearly reluctant Carey into discussing her pregnancy. In recounting that moment to Vulture, Carey said, “I don’t want to throw anyone that’s already being thrown under any proverbial bus, but I didn’t enjoy that moment.”

“[There’s] an empathy that can be applied to those moments that I would have liked to have been implemented,” Carey continued. “But what am I supposed to do?”

In 2010, Carey revealed that she was pregnant with her twins, Monroe and Morocccan. That’s also when she confirmed that she had been pregnant two years prior, at the time of her interview with DeGeneres, and that she miscarried soon after.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is currently under an internal investigation following a pair of BuzzFeed News reports published in July, in which several current and former staffers accused the show’s producers of racism, sexism, “rampant” sexual harassment, and other forms of mistreatment. Most employees believed that DeGeneres was largely unaware of the toxic environment behind the scenes of her show, and others blamed her for turning a blind eye. One former employee told BuzzFeed, “She knows shit goes on, but also she doesn’t want to hear it.”

Many celebrities have rallied behind DeGeneres since the allegations surfaced, but still others aren’t letting the talk-show host off the hook so quickly. In August, Brad Garrett tweeted, “Know more than one who were treated horribly by her.⁩ Common knowledge.”Carey’s own experience on the show was clearly painful, and DeGeneres’ bullying behavior is simply inexcusable.

But beyond casting more light on DeGeneres’ behavior specifically, we hope this drives home a more universal message: It’s never okay to force a person to discuss their pregnancy (or lack thereof) before they’re explicitly ready to do so.