Given Mariah Carey’s reputation as the biggest diva in the music world – scratch that, the biggest diva in the world – it feels somehow fitting (poetic justice, perhaps?) that her 2016 wedding to billionaire James Packer might have been called off for the most extra of reasons.
In a new biography of Packer by journalist Damon Kitney, it is claimed that Seven West Media mogul Kerry Stokes staged not one but two major, international-scale interventions in order to get the wedding called off.
First, when Packer was visiting Israel and reportedly dealing with depression and paranoia, Carey asked to visit him, wanting to use his private jet for the trip. Stokes, a close friend of Packer, did not believe that Packer was 'of sound mind' at this point, and upon learning of the singer's wishes, decided to intervene. He speedily arranged for the plane to be sent off for servicing, a move which would put the vehicle out of action for six weeks. And to add an extra touch of shade, he told Carey and her assistant that he would happily book them some economy class flights, according to an interview given by Stokes to promote the biography. Naturally, they declined.
When this move failed to curtail the couple’s wedding plans completely, Stokes claims that he put in a call to ask for a boat, which was set to be a big part of Carey and Packer’s Tahitian ceremony, to be moved two weeks before the planned date.
‘Even though there was a pre-nuptial that we agreed and there were other factors to happen, Mariah was already sending out invitations to her friends as was Stella [her agent] for this giant occasion in Tahiti,’ he said. ‘As it turned out, I spoke to the captain, there was the prospect of a possible storm so it was decided in the interests of safety the boat should be moved to a more secure location, which meant that the wedding of course couldn’t happen at that point in time and had to be cancelled.’
‘Mariah had to go through the fact of advising people that the wedding was cancelled and she blamed me for that and threatened to sue me for damages,’ he continued.