The Insane Spending Sprees That Ended Mariah’s Engagement
No one can out-diva Mariah Carey.
The ostentatious songstress takes the cake when it comes to over-the-top behavior — including frenzied spending that may have doomed her engagement to billionaire James Packer.
Carey regularly drops $10,000 to get her hair and makeup perfect — even if it's all going to last just a single day, sources said. “Mariah is the last of the divas — she's got a very old-school approach to stardom,'' radio host Charlamagne Tha God, aka Lenard McKelvey, who knows the singer, told The Post.
It's “champagne-in-the-morning type stuff. She [once] shared some with the Breakfast Club staff at 10 o'clock in the morning, but she did not pour her own champagne — someone else poured it for her.”
Australian casino mogul Packer and Carey are on the rocks because her “extravagant spending” was becoming too aggravating for the billionaire, according to reports.
“The relationship was always a sham. It was all about one thing . . . money, money, money, money,'' a source told The Post.
It's no secret Carey loves the finer things in life. The pop star, who is estimated to be worth a half-billion dollars herself, reportedly drops at least $45,000 a year on spa treatments for her beloved pooches. The pups, Jack Russells named Cha Cha and Jill E. Beans, even flew first class to LA in January, which cost over $2,000 per dog, sources said.
“Mariah spends $100,000 a month ordering exotic flowers from around the world to where she happens to be,” a close friend of Packer told Woman's Day last month.
Her closet is the stuff of legends — seemingly packed with more stilettos than the Barneys shoe department.
“Always my favorite room in the house,” the 46-year-old Carey captioned an Instagram photo showing off just part of her vast footwear collection.
In 2014, Carey — who once called overhead lighting “abusive” — showed up to a filmed radio interview on Power 105's The Breakfast Club over an hour late and with her own lighting crew in tow.
“I remember thinking to myself, damn, what kind of disposable income she has where she has her own lighting director?” McKelvey told The Post. “That was the first and only time that that has ever happened on the radio show. She was a diva in a good way — very flamboyant, over the top.”
Carey didn't apologize for her tardiness but at least offered the crew the champagne, he said.
“They were fixing her hair and makeup before and during the interview,” he added.
Carey also keeps her own yacht, the Capri, which costs a cool $340,000 per week plus expenses to maintain, according to “Entertainment Tonight.”
She would use a ferry to reach Packer's boat, the Arctic P, which is the seventh-largest privately owned vessel in the world.
A source said Packer and Carey split around seven weeks ago, and they won't be getting back together.
“Things haven't been going well for a while,” the source explained. “She lives in a crazy world.”
Carey's camp is denying that the singer's spending habits are to blame for the breakup but confirmed that her relationship with Packer has been on the rocks since their trip to Greece last month.
“Mariah and James had a fight in Greece and have not seen each other since,” her rep said in a statement to “ET.”
“The fight was not because of any cheating allegations or excessive spending by Mariah. James is one of the most successful businessmen in the world. They are trying to work it out.
“Right now, they're not sure if they will stay together. They are discussing it and plan to release an official statement together about their future.”
TMZ reported that the couple was vacationing on Packer's yacht during their Greek vacation, and sources close to Carey claim Packer did “something really bad” involving her assistant.
“Something went down with Mariah's assistant when they were on the boat in Greece,” a source close to Carey told The Post. “It wasn't a violent incident, but it meant that Mariah had to leave.”
A rep for Packer said there was no incident with Carey's assistant in Greece.
“This is also simply untrue,” the spokesperson said.
Sources told TMZ that the split may have something to do with Carey having “some sort of rendezvous” with a dancer in her Las Vegas residency — and it was caught on video during the taping of her upcoming reality series, “Mariah's World.”
Packer would have been Carey's third husband. She married actor Nick Cannon in 2008 during a surprise wedding in the Bahamas after a mere six weeks of dating.
They renewed their vows at Disneyland in 2013, wearing matching prince and princess costumes, People magazine reported. The reception included 15,000 flowers imported from South Africa, Holland and France — along with 10,000 crystals.
But Cannon, who shares two children with Carey, filed for divorce in December 2014.
Her first marriage was to music exec Tommy Mottola.
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