Mariah Carey had a difficult pregnancy with Dem Babies, and she gained something like 70 pounds, by her own account. It took her years to really get to a place where she started wearing her favorite figure-hugging ensembles after she gave birth. Then Mariah met James Packer and they started their whirlwind romance, and Mariah “went away” for a little bit and she seemed to come back looking a lot slimmer. I remember some people saying that Mariah had gotten some liposuction, and a little nip and tuck here and there for Packer. Since Mariah and James Packer split, Mariah gained some weight back. I wasn’t aware of any big stories about her weight gain – if anything, I feel like Mariah’s fluctuating weight makes her more relatable, and people are more likely to criticize her for being a crazy elusive chanteuse butterfly than criticizing her for her weight. But Mariah still felt uncomfortable and she apparently got “gastric sleeve surgery” recently.
Mariah Carey has undergone weight-loss surgery after the superstar became self-conscious about her curves because of cruel online commenters, sources claim. Page Six has exclusively learned that the diva underwent gastric sleeve surgery last month, performed by a top surgeon in Beverly Hills, Calif., after her weight reportedly skyrocketed.
The procedure involves removing part of the stomach so that the patient feels fuller more quickly. It can be done via a small incision, meaning recovery time is fast and scarring is minimal.
A source told us of Carey, “Mariah has always been proud of her curves, but this summer, as her Caesars Palace residency came to a close, and then she went on tour with Lionel Richie, she noticed it became harder to dance, and she was getting a lot more criticism online from body shamers.” The source added that the superstar had been indulging in cocktails and dinners with her boyfriend Bryan Tanaka, and continued, “Mariah underwent the procedure about a month ago, and she is already seeing some good results, and she feels a lot better.”
Her rep Nicole Perna declined multiple requests for comment. Carey previously lost 70 pounds after the birth of her twins in 2011. She explained she did it with a strict diet and exercise plan, but added, “I never weighed myself. People will think I’m a liar but it’s true . . . I’m a big-boned girl, I’m tall, and so I always weigh more.”
On Saturday, we revealed that Carey had ended her relationship with manager Stella Bulochnikov. They confirmed in a joint statement, “After working together for almost three years, Mariah Carey and Stella Bulochnikov have determined that it is in their mutual best interest to part ways on day-to-day management,” adding that they will remain partners on a number of upcoming music and film projects. Former backup dancer Tanaka has taken over as the star’s day-to-day manager.
If it makes her feel better, so be it. It might be a harder road for someone like Mariah to actually hire a dietician, full-time chef and full-time trainer and really spend the time, money and effort to lose weight the old-fashioned way. To me, the idea of getting surgery and taking out part of my stomach just to lose weight seems… ridiculous and awful, but that’s just me. I hate the idea of anyone cutting into me. I do wonder why Mimi didn’t just go for lipo (again)?
As for Mariah breaking up with her manager… I thought it was good news, at first, because Stella Bulochnikov did not represent her client very well (just my opinion). But for Mariah to make her backup dancer boyfriend her new manager? YIKES. That is an even bigger disaster.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
RE: “and people are more likely to criticize her for being a crazy elusive chanteuse butterfly than criticizing her for her weight.”
I’ve noticed her getting criticized for her weight indirectly in regards to her clothes. Some people actually do criticize how tight her outfit is, but others have said that she looks like a “stuffed sausage.”
In another age men would have fallen at her feet to praise her curves.
I’m not going to judge. MC is a grown adult with pressures I can sorta relate to because I have body image issues too. I need to lose some weight. If she want to do it so be it.
She doesn’t come anywhere near the criteria for warranting this kind of surgery; no reputable doctor would’ve done it.
I thought the same. Don’t you have to be at least 100 pounds overweight to get gastric sleeve surgery? A lap band is far less drastic, but still reduces the size of the stomach.
It goes by your BMI not the amount of weight you need to lose. Lap band is being phased out.
You do need to be a certain a certain amount to lose to get these surgeries.at least when I had mine.I had one eight years ago because I was 150 pounds overweight.My surgery saved my life.I had the Lap Band and I had it removed two years ago because it slipped.Yes the Lap Band is being phased out.Having a port put into your stomach is very painful and that’s where the shoot the saline.If Mariah had a gastric sleeve put in I don’t think she was heavy enough so she paid for it.I hope she knows her days of drinking Champagne are gone,You get something similar to a diabetic shock if you drink too much.
@Alix We don’t know that. We don’t know her BMI or if she has thyroids. Some docs only require you to be 40 or 50 pounds over what your average weight should be. I know at least six people personally who has had the sleeve surgery. My insurance even pays forl it if you have a medical issue including thyroid or a doctor has clarified you as overweight or a high BMI
Do you guys know that the sleeve was invented as the first step before gastric. Some people were considered to obese to go directly into the gastric surgery so they came up with the sleeve to help those people lose weight before the major surgery. That’s when they discovered that after the sleeve some people didn’t need the more evasive gastric surgery. So no, you don’t have to be 100 pounds overweight for the sleeve.
Had no idea!
I thought the same.
She’s not in bad shape, and probably could have gotten a little healthier and better conditioned for touring with a good chef and a trainer. Surgery seems like a radical solution, so I’m hoping this isn’t true.
Honestly, just wearing properly sized clothes would be a huge improvement.
In normal life she would look gorgeous wearing that black dress as above. But unfortunately on pictures such a soft cloth as that dress does show all those little dimples and cutting lines of your underwear. But that is just because it is a photography.
And it is a bit weird if a woman of her size is considered to be overweight. She is curvy and has a flat stomach – no way her weight is unhealthy. Everybody should know by now how faulty this BMI table really is.
Exactly! Not only I find it lazy (it’s not like she’s a single full-time working mother who cannot afford healthy food and gym memberships) but above all it’s dangerous. It’s an unsafe and unhealthy shortcut. Also, she wasn’t obese, if she dressed with proper sizes it wouldn’t hurt, she’s making herself look fatter then she really is. Some of her weight seems like a booze related bloat….sometimes we forget that there’s the equivalent of almost 10 sugar cubes in each glass of wine :-/
I got the sleeve almost three years ago. There is nothing lazy or dangerous about it. It’s certainly not a short cut for me. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s not a quick solution and there are many things you need to go through in order to qualify for the surgery.
At a certain point gaining and losing large amounts of weight can be damaging in itself. Given we’re talking about Mimi here she probably had it for vanity, but it could also be something like diabetes.
Giving the critism of woman’s weight you can understand why woman in the public eye do this every story with a female celebrity has a comment on the way they look then we wonder why they have have body issues and resort to surgery
She never seemed overweight at all. If she had this serious and unnecessary surgery, the doctors must have done it just for the big $$$
The comment towards the end of the article “I wonder why Mimi didn’t just go for lipo again” is kind of jaw dropping in its casualness. Lipo is a surgical procedure and has risks. It certainly isn’t something you just do every so often for weight control.
Lipo has risks, but far, far less risks and consequences than gastric band surgery. These days lipo can be done fairly non-invasively and extremely safely. Gastric band surgery on the other hand sets you up for a lifetime of very restrictive eating and possible complications even if the surgery goes perfectly.
Yes, I am aware that they are very different procedures done via different methodologies. And yes, lipo is generally considered safe if done at the hands of a skilled doctor. But it still has risks and I stand by my point. Lipo is not considered by the reputable medical community to be a method of weight control.
Of course it’s not, but neither is gastric band surgery for anyone who’s not morbidly obese. So if you do something that drastic, lipo seems extremely tame in comparison.
Lipo includes sucking out fat tissue and that creates a “cavity”. And then the body is tightly bandaged so that this “cavity” is flattened into a huge flat scar layer. If you get what I mean.
And that is one of the problems that no lipo method can get around: lots of scar tissue under your skin. Scar tissue is less flexible and less well-supported with blood. Not good especially if it is a big scar like you get when you get lipo.
When will you cover the story of Mariah Carey being accused of sexual harassment
+1
There’s more than one.
If I had her kind of money, I too would get a bariatric sleeve. There’s just too much good food and temptation at every turn.
I want a full body sleeve …. with an optional on/off brain blocker. I will turn the brain part off once the US has a new president in the White House (bonus if Dotard+5 or so are in the big house), and there is some modicum of humanity and sanity in the world.
I saw a recent video. MC was showing her closet. SHE looked uncomfortable and you could see very obvious makeup to give her jaw and neck definition. I could tell she was not happy in her skin. I can relate. I have a body type that tends towards curvy and gain weight easily. I’m focusing on my metabolism and adrenal support but definitely understand why she chose surgery. I’m looking forward to seeing her in her sexy dresses again soon, most importantly feeling comfortable xo
In quite of few of her younger interviews (like the MTV cribs) she brought up food a lot. Like, she wasn’t able to eat a lot of food and she would mention it a lot. I have a feeling it was really hard for her to be as thin as she was in her Honey days.
Having had gastric bypass surgery myself over a year ago, I thought I’d chime in. There’s no way to know what other health problems Mariah is experiencing as a result of her often drastic weight fluctuations. Granted, she’s probably not nearly as big as people think because of her choice of outfits. It’s possible if she could look fabulous w/o losing weight with better clothing choices, i.e. less leotards. I have sarcoidosis and spent over 2 years on prednisone as a result, I also have PCOS and the two combined to a weight gain that was really stressful and contributed to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Knowing that there is a good chance I’ll have to take prednisone in the future, I wanted to not only lose weight now but reduce the possibility of ballooning up in the future. The surgery made a dramatic impact on my life. Granted, I had to have a LOT of tests before my insurance approved it and before my board certified and very ethical surgeon would proceed. A full year of appointments with a gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, dermatologist, cardiologist, PCP, psychologist and dietician with monthly weigh ins. It is not for the faint of heart. The kicker, my first attempt at surgery had to be ditched because my lymph nodes were swollen so bad they couldn’t intubate me for surgery. So, whatever Mimi is going through, I hope she recovers mentally and physically in spectacular form.
I had to go through a lot of tests too.Even a mental evaluation.I don’t like it when people think or say it is the easy way out because it is not.It is painful and you are super restricted about what you eat and drink.
My next door neighbour growing up was a horrible woman. I don’t know how many times I left the house when I was a teenager and she would make rude and very sexual comments about what I was wearing. If I was close enough to her, she would touch my bum or flick my skirt up. Eventually I started leaving the house through my bedroom window so I could avoid her. Anybody I told just laughed it off and said that’s just how she was and I was just over reacting. Meanwhile, I was a teenage girl just trying to figure myself out. The behaviour never stopped until I started seeing my husband in my last year of high school. She flicked my skirt up in front of him and asked what our fav sex position was, he grabbed her wrist and told her if she ever touched me again, he would make her regret it. She never bothered me after that and I moved away after school to attend college in a different community. The experience has stayed with me since and the anxiety never quite went away. My point is that sometimes women can be just as bad as men and get away with it just because they are women. I really hope that the people that run this site take the accusations against Mariah as serious as they take the stories of men being awful sexual harassers
Omg! That is awful. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I can’t even imagine what I would do if anyone did that to my child.
I would gently and quietly inform my neighbour that if she put her hand on my child’s body again, I would take it off hers. I would probably also paper the neighbourhood with her picture and an account of what she likes to do.
The only way Mariah Carey was okay with losing weight the old fashioned was after Dembabies was because she had that Jenny Craig contract, remember? And even then she had her hand held EVERY step of the way, and she instagrammed it and reminded up how much work she was doing. She’s definitely lost weight, but it’s a very in-Mariah thing to do it quietly if she’s really putting in that work. Mariah Carey isn’t exactly known for her love of hard work, so if she got a gastric sleeve let’s be honest: it’s likely because she wanted an easy way of losing weight. It’s been a tough year for her with her breakup with Packer, that dud of a reality show, and of course that NYE performance. I wouldn’t at all be shocked if she took this step.
Does anybody really care…..
I know right? Lol
I commented earlier without giving a sh*t…I’m so aware that it’s useless but sometimes it’s a guilty pleasure.
I wish she would cut her hair and didn’t have such a huge chest. She doesn’t need it. Her skin is perfect and she has such pretty eyes. I just want her to update her look.
I agree. I don’t care is she had a gastric sleeve. If she did she felt it necessary for herself. It’s nobody’s business.
She’s very pretty and has an amazing voice; she doesn’t need anything else.
@kodakay, she doesn’t even have much of her voice left anymore! She’s been losing her power and range for years.
James Packer, since they broke up, has gained a huge amount of weight. I think he was always a bigger guy-but now he’s ginormous. And I have struggled with this off and on too-I know how emotional things (like breakups) can send you off the deep end with eating.
I’m going through the process for gastric sleeve now and while it may be different if she did have this, just the process for approval is work. Unless you can pay out of pocket you don’t just go to a surgeon and say “I want bariatric surgery.” If anyone is curious, and there may be slight variations by insurance company, but these are the steps.
1: BMI of 35 with co-morbities (diabetes, sleep apnea, cardiac issues), 40 without just to get in the surgeon’s door, with approval of your primary care.
2: A multitude of tests. Standard include a psychological assessment, blood work, endoscopy (I recommend combining it with your colonoscopy since you’re already under). Depending on your history and co-morbitiies you may also have to do a sleep study and a cardiac work up and anything else your insurance company may mandate.
3: Attend support group sessions; my surgeon and insurance required 2, with a list of approved and signatures required.
4: 4 sessions with a nutrionist. It was mandated there had to be a minimum of 30 days between visits.
5: 5% weight loss from the starting weight at the first nutrionist session to the fourth.
And while yes, the weight loss is rapid it’s not fool proof or without side effects. For bypass, you have to be on a series of vitamins, with regular blood work, forever due to malabsorption. There is an effect called “dumping” which they warn you will make you feel like you are going to die, which can be a result of overeating or eating wrong foods. And remember Carnie Wilson? She has had gastric bypass surgery twice and last photo I saw had gained a good bit back.
Anyway, tangent over. I doubt 99.9% of the people do the surgery because it’s the easy way, or it’s their first option.
Of course she had gastric sleeve surgery. That woman would eat a tapeworm if it would guarantee she’d lose weight.
This is a sad case of doctors without morals taking advantage of a woman who clearly has some issues. People who weigh 20-30 lb more than they’d like are NOT candidates for weight loss surgery, and should not be. It’s not safe and the long term effects, well beyond the initial surgery itself, are mostly unknown. Risking your life for a smaller dress size, especially when you have young children, is something someone else should have stopped her from her doing, if she’s personally too misguided to see it for the folly it is.
The problem with her is she keeps getting liposuction and the weight gets sucked and then she gains weight and it goes somewhere else so she starts looking deformed in her neck and face.
This makes me sad. The surgery is a TOOL, it’s not a miracle fix. You still have to be SO careful with what you eat and how much. It’s not going to just make the weight melt off if you’re still eating crap and not following the strict guidelines most reputable surgeons lay out. This is meant for people who are at least 100 pounds overweight. Several people I know have had it done and it was a completely life changing thing and it takes SO much hard work. It’s not just “poof!” and the weight falls off. Not at all. And alcohol is awful for you and we all know homegirl loves her champagne. and on THAT note – you can’t have anything bubbly/carbonated… No sugar, no carbs, etc are typical. You have to focus on dense protein first and that pretty much fills you up. ALSO, I’ll be curious to see how she handles the hair loss part of this surgery. I guess she probably already uses wigs, though.
I have a very similar body type to Mariah. I love my curves and that I have an ample bosom and bottom. The downside to this type of body is that a lot of discipline is needed to eat healthy and exercise. We aren’t the naturally thin type of people who can splurge on unhealthy food and be okay. It is very easy for endomorphs to store fat and hard to take it off.
That being said, I think Mariah looks great for her age and for most women in general. She is not fat enough to get gastric sleeve surgery in my opinion, nor do I think that was her best option to get rid of fat without working for her weight loss. She is not morbidly obese. She would have been better off with sculpsure, coolsculpting, or lipo in addition to working out. This is only a temporary solution and a painful one that I would never do to myself. If she doesn’t have the control to cut portion sizes and eat healthy, the fat will come back, and it only gets harder with age.
Her other problem is that she loves wearing ill-fitted tight outfits meant for thin young women. If she refuses to age gracefully and embrace her current size as a woman who is almost 50, she will continue to rely on surgery and hate herself and her body. No one would care about her weight gain if she just wore clothes in her size. Same with Kim Kardashian.
I completely agree.
She looks fabulous for her age and is a beautiful woman.
All Mariah needs to do is update her look and wear more flattering clothing.
Making her boytoy her manager is an excellent decision. It’s up there with when Tom Cruise fired his PR and hired his sister instead. That went so well! At least, for the gossip sites it did.
In my country the conditions to get a sleeve surgery are quite restrictive – your BMI has to be > than 40 (or >35 if there is an illness associated with it). That is, if you want the surgery to be covered by health insurance. I know several people who were were barely overweight and who managed to still get one because the doctor falsified the medical reports and put a much higher initial weight on them than the real one.
That being said, people usually lose weight fast and it is a bit irritating for me because I lost a shitton of weight all by myself (don’t want the surgery) but the process is a bit slower and bumpy. Yet, the surgery has consequences : you can get light-headed, dizzy, you cannot eat certain types of food, if you eat just a bit too much you feel extremely bad… so I think the risks/benefits are to be thought about carefully before deciding.