Nick Cannon has opened up about being diagnosed with lupus, vowing that he ‘probably wouldn’t be alive’ today without ex-wife Mariah Carey.
The 42-year-old married the Touch My Body singer, 54, in 2008, and they went on to together.
However, it wasn’t to last and the pair split in 2014 and finalized their divorce two years later, but .
Appearing on the Diary of a CEO , the Wild ‘n Out host – who has since gone on to – revealed that the music icon became his ‘rock’ when his health took a turn in 2012.
‘It threw me for a superloop,’ he told host Steven Bartlett. ‘I’m here, living my dream life. Married to the most gorgeous, beautiful, super-talented person that ever stepped on the planet, literally my dream girl. We’ve got two kids…
‘I’m in Aspen with my wife, thinking I’m probably in the best shape of my life … I had the weirdest pain in my right side, I’m thinking it’s a muscle cramp and I’ll just jog through it.
‘I’m in high altitude, jogging in the snow, this is my Rocky moment. I don’t know what I was thinking. By the time I got back to the house, I passed out. Mariah came in and found me, they rushed me to the ER in Aspen.’
Nick explained that they initially assumed it was altitude sickness or dehydration, as he had just been jogging beforehand, but then he underwent a biopsy, where doctors noticed that his kidneys were failing.
Thankfully, they were able to spot the issue early enough so that his kidneys ‘didn’t completely fail’, and then diagnosed him with lupus.
He heaped praise on Mariah’s efforts during this time, sharing that his condition managed to bring them ‘closer together’ in their marriage.
‘She was my rock, she went hard. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for how hard she went with the doctors, with me, my stubbornness,’ he continued.
‘She was the perfect helpmate, the perfect matriarch, the perfect mom, the perfect wife in those scenarios.
‘Granted, she’s who she is, dealing with all the pressures of being Mariah Carey, but then being loving enough to take on all of my stuff.
‘It probably took a toll on us just because of the person I was, in my head and the struggles that I was dealing with, so it probably took a toll on our relationship. But it definitely brought us closer together.’
‘If you don’t catch it and control it, you can lose your life pretty quickly,’ he added of his health. ‘It was a scary time and I didn’t understand it, but we got it in order.
‘I feel like I’ve got a good hold on it now. it’s a great reminder that health is wealth, health is currency. Health is the most important thing, next to time, that we possess.’
