Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey: A Love Story

Bauer Griffin

Rapper Nick Cannon says he had the hots for Mariah Carey for ages before the two actually met, and he went out of his way to put himself in her path by telling everyone about his feelings for her. Mariah said: “He likes to say that he spoke it into existence. He told everybody who he thought might know me, ‘Tell your girl Mariah that I want to talk to her.’ All this stuff. I didn’t know him… but I didn’t know what to believe.”

Mariah and Nick at a premiere.
The pair finally met at The Teen Choice Awards in 2005, after Nick insisted on presenting her with an accolade. Speaking to Barbara Walters on her Here's Barbara Sirius XM radio show, she revealed: “He told me that he said to the people that were doing the show, that he wouldn’t do it, unless he could present my award to me. I said, ‘Thank you for all the nice things that you’ve been saying about me.’ And he said, ‘I meant everything -- give me a chance.’ And then I didn’t see him again for two years.”

But they eventually got together when Mariah, who married Nick in 2008, decided she wanted him to star in her music video for "Bye Bye." She said: “I always remembered the moment. We were doing a video and there was going to be a love interest in it. And we were thinking of all different actors and people -- we wanted it to look authentic. And I said, ‘Oh, what about Nick Cannon?’ ”

More pictures of Mariah and Nick (click any photo):

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