Mariah Carey Thought Her Relationship With Derek Jeter Put Her Life at Risk

3 days ago

<p id=”par-1_64″>Between 1997 and 1998, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/mariah-carey/?swcfpc=1″>Mariah Carey</a> and Derek Jeter dated. During this time, she was still technically married to her first <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/celebrity-relationships/?swcfpc=1″>husband</a>, Tommy Mottola, though the couple had separated a year prior. Carey fell hard for Jeter, writing several love songs about him. She said that while she felt she was taking a major risk every time she saw him, it felt worth it. </p>

<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-mariah-carey-felt-she-was-taking-a-major-risk-with-derek-jeter”>Mariah Carey felt she was taking a major risk with Derek Jeter</h2>

<p id=”par-2_59″>Mottola was <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mariah-carey-said-1-few-times-stood-tommy-mottola-defense-sean-diddy-combs.html/”>such a controlling partner</a> that Carey began to refer to their home as Sing Sing. While she was still married to him, she met Jeter at a dinner party. At first she thought he seemed “rather pedestrian,” but he caught her attention when she learned that he, like her, had an Irish mother and a Black father. </p>

<p id=”par-3_40″>“It was as if suddenly I could <em>see </em>him,” she wrote in her book <em><a href=”https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-meaning-of-mariah-carey-mariah-carey/1137317119″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Meaning of Mariah Carey</a></em>. “Derek was definitely no longer pedestrian; he was closer to a Prince Charming. This first moment of connection was so profound.”</p>

<p id=”par-4_29″>They spoke for the rest of the night and she discreetly gave him her contact information. He began to make her feel as though she could escape Mottola’s control.</p>

<p id=”par-5_40″>“Planning and communicating with Derek felt like someone had smuggled a file into my jail cell,” Carey wrote. “Each time we connected, it was as if I had worn down a bit more of the bars that held me captive.”</p>

<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Derek-Jeter.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Derek Jeter wears a suit and smiles.” class=”wp-image-3713983″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Derek Jeter | Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>

<p id=”par-6_16″>After weeks of communication, she decided to meet up with him. Carey said she felt terrified. </p>

<p id=”par-7_24″>“The stakes were incredibly high,” she wrote. “I’d never tried anything this dangerous before, and I had seen firsthand how Tommy could destroy people.”</p>

<p id=”par-8_39″>They spent time together on Jeter’s rooftop, where they shared a “warm, slow, intoxicating kiss.” Carey said she had never felt that way before. While the possibility of Mottola’s wrath terrified her, she said the risk was worth it. </p>

<p id=”par-9_40″>“I truly believed I was actually risking my life, but I felt life wasn’t worth living if I couldn’t have what I’d had that night,” Carey wrote. “‘My All’ was the realest, boldest, most passionate love song I’d ever written.”</p>

<p id=”par-10_24″>Carey fell hard and fast for Jeter. She couldn’t stop thinking about the night on his rooftop and she yearned to see him again.</p>

<p id=”par-11_51″>“I romanticized so much about that night that I believed it was part of my destiny,” she wrote, adding, “I thought I had met my soul mate. I was driven. My whole being ached to see Derek — or, more accurately, to experience how I felt when I was near him.”</p>

<p id=”par-12_11″>They were able to officially date once she <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-did-mariah-carey-divorce-tommy-mattola-and-who-she-started-seeing-while-they-were-still-married.html/”>separated from Mottola</a>. </p>

<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-mariah-carey-wrote-a-song-about-derek-jeter”>Mariah Carey wrote a song about Derek Jeter</h2>

<p id=”par-13_21″>While Carey had written many love songs before meeting Jeter, she said he helped her understand the feelings she wrote about.</p>

<p id=”par-14_69″>“I had created an endless number of romantic moments in my songs, and I had been incredibly sad for so long. Finally, it was as if I was actually <em>living </em>a dream,” she wrote of the first night they met. “I saw his eyes — enormous twinkling jade pearls floating in a golden-brown pool. It was as if there was no one else in the restaurant or the universe.”</p>

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<p id=”par-15_11″>She <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mariah-carey-talks-derek-jeter-affair-and-reveals-the-2-songs-she-wrote-about-him.html/”>wrote “The Roof”</a> about the night when they first kissed.</p>

<p id=”par-16_68″>“‘The Roof,’ as a song and a video, painted a deeply passionate and very accurate picture of my experiences,” she wrote. “It was <em>major </em>for me, not for any salacious reasons but because any intimacy with another human being was not something I had experienced before, ever. It was an amazing feeling and I was obsessed with replaying the encounter and fantasizing about what it could lead to.”</p>

<p id=”par-17_19″><strong><em>How to get help:</em></strong><em> In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.</em></p>