Mariah Carey Tells Jennifer Hudson Why She Doesn’t Have a Driver’s License

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 18 November 2023

Mariah Carey hasn’t driven herself anywhere in years, she told Jennifer Hudson on The Jennifer Hudson Show this week—not because she can’t drive (she can), but because she doesn’t have a current driver’s license.

Per Entertainment Tonight, Carey—who is on her Merry Christmas One and All Tour—said on the show “If there were one street that I could say, ‘Okay, this is a safe street for me to drive,’ I would do that,” Carey said. “But the thing is, it’s just better for me to go with somebody in the car and not drive—but I can drive.”

Of her driver’s license, she doesn’t have one at present “because I let it expire,” Carey said. “I did have one and then I left it where I was living. I was living in the city, and you don’t really want to drive in Manhattan. Well, I don’t.”

And when she went to check on her license, “They were like, ‘Oh, well it’s expired, and expired like seven years ago,'” she said. “So then I was going to have to take the test again.” That hurdle won’t deter Carey, though: “Now I’m going to try to get the license again,” she said. (Can you imagine this DMV photo?)

Carey kicked off her tour on November 15 in Highland, California; it runs until December 17, when it will wrap with a performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“I’m just super excited to be with the fans and just have an experience with them on the road together,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s getting into the frosty weather soon and all that.”

The tour includes onstage appearances by the 12-year-old twins she shares with ex-husband Nick Cannon, Moroccan and Monroe. “I’m proud of them,” Carey said. “They just know so many things and they’re, like, on top of everything. They’re going to be coming around the country with me and doing their thing, and I’m excited to watch them.”

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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