Mariah Carey: Ellen DeGeneres made me feel 'uncomfortable' on her show

Music star Mariah Carey is criticizing Ellen DeGeneres for a stunt the daytime talk-show host pulled in 2008 to try to make Carey announce a rumored pregnancy.

"I was extremely uncomfortable with that moment is all I can say," the Huntington-born and Greenlawn-raised Carey, 51, told New York magazine in an interview in its new issue. "And I really have had a hard time grappling with the aftermath," when she and then-husband Nick Cannon suffered a miscarriage.

In a clip from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" that aired Nov. 26, 2008, the host, now 62, tells guest Carey, "People are saying that you're pregnant. There's rumors -- "

"We didn't discuss that," Carey cuts in with a nervous chuckle, evidently referring to the standard pre-interview discussion of what topics and anecdotes a talk-show appearance will include.

"Let's just toast with Champagne and decide -- ," DeGeneres starts to say as Carey again cuts in and the two crosstalk. Undeterred, DeGeneres pulls out a bottle of Champagne and two flutes. The singer demurs, saying that yes, she can have Champagne, but "it's just fattening, so, y'know." After Carey adds incredulously, "I can't believe you did this to me, Ellen," DeGeneres replies, "What? No, I'm not going to ask you if you're pregnant, I'm just here as a friend."

"You see what Ellen is doing?" Carey asks the audience. "This is peer pressure," she jokes.

"No! Let's toast to you not being pregnant!" DeGeneres responds.

Carey gamely takes the glass as the audience applauds. "Why would we toast to that? How about to the future?" she suggests, and the two clink glasses. "For both of our futures. Who knows what they hold."

"Who knows?" agrees DeGeneres. "All right, go ahead."

After saying, to audience laughter, "It's too early for me. I only drink after 3 p.m.," Carey either pretends to take a sip or takes an imperceptibly small one, and says exaggeratedly, "Mmmm!"

"You're pregnant! You're pregnant!" DeGeneres shouts triumphantly.

"No, I didn't say that!" Carey interjects to no avail as DeGeneres announces, "You are pregnant!"

Carey told New York magazine, "I wasn't ready to tell anyone" how she felt about DeGeneres'' actions, "because I had had a miscarriage. I don't want to throw anyone that's already being thrown under any proverbial bus," referring to recent turmoil at DeGeneres' talk show following reports of a toxic work environment, "but I didn't enjoy that moment." Carey added that there is "an empathy that can be applied to those moments that I would have liked to have been implemented."

Representatives for DeGeneres did not respond to Newsday requests for comment. Carey subsequently appeared at least four more times on the talk show between 2010 and 2016.

A VERY CAREY CHRISTMAS. Apple TV Pllus announced Monday that the new "Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special” will debut on the streaming service later this year. The show will feature music, dance, animation and unspecified guests and commemorate the 25th anniversary of Carey's perennial holiday anthem "All I Want For Christmas Is You," Apple said.

"If you know me, you know I refuse to talk about Christmas before it's even fall," Carey tweeted, "but I am SO excited for this @AppleTV special that I'll make an exception today only!"