The Queen of Christmas has some not so celebratory news to share this holiday season. After seven years together, Mariah Carey and Bryan Tanaka have reportedly ended their relationship. And according to Page Six, their 14-year age gap contributed to the two of them going their separate ways. A source said that Carey and Tanaka are on different pages when it comes to their lives, including in one major way.
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Page Six reports that Carey and Tanaka broke up, because he wants to have children. "He wants to have a family. That’s not where she is at," a source said. Another source shared, "He wants to start having his own life."
While Tanaka, 40, does not have any children yet, Carey, 54, is already mother to two kids, 12-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe Cannon, with her ex-husband, Nick Cannon.
Tanaka and Carey began dating in 2016 but had worked together for 10 years prior to that, as Tanaka was one of her backup dancers. According to Page Six, there was already speculation that the couple had split, because Tanaka was nowhere to be seen during Carey's Merry Christmas One and All! Tour and because she took her yearly holiday trip to Aspen, Colorado without him. A source told People that Tanaka usually accompanied the singer on the vacation. The publication also reported that the two haven't been seen out together since Carey's birthday in March.
Carey and Tanaka broke up once back in 2017 before getting back together. At that time, Entertainment Tonight reported claims that Tanaka was jealous of Cannon and that he was using Carey in the hopes of launching a music career.
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If Carey and Tanaka broke up over his desire to have children, it would be consistent with what the singer and Cannon have shared in the past.
"If Nick could have the babies himself, then yeah, bring 'em on. We love kids," Carey said on a 2013 episode of Watch What Happens Live (via E! News). "Here's the thing: This is real. I'm responsible for the kids for like forever. I look at it like, they didn't ask for this lifestyle but here they are." She also said she had a difficult pregnancy. "To anyone who has ever carried twins, it is a totally different experience...You don't even know who you are. I had a very difficult pregnancy, but I was alone most of the time. We love Nick, but he's working. He's the hardest-working man in show business."
Carey has also said that she didn't think she wanted to be a mother for much of her life. "I remember being a little girl and going, 'I don't think I'm going to have babies when I grow up' ... for a while I was probably convinced of that, and I just realized things change and that's what happens," she told ET Canada in 2014 (via ABC News).
Cannon also said that Carey didn't want more than two children. "I do [want more kids], Mariah doesn’t," he told InTouch (via Essence) soon after they welcomed Monroe and Moroccan in 2011. "She said, ‘That’s it! I’m done! Two at once!’ It was an intense pregnancy to carry twins around. She was a trooper." Of course, Cannon did go on to have many more children with other women after his marriage to Carey ended.
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