Jam: Spotlight on Music StarsMariah Carey’s husband defends her against Nicki Minaj: ‘My wife is the strongest and classiest woman’
Note to Nicki Minaj: When you mess with Mariah Carey, be prepared to hear from her husband. On Wednesday, Nick Cannon spoke out about the verbal altercation his wife and the "Pound the Alarm" rapper engaged in during an "American Idol" audition taping Tuesday in North Carolina.
"My wife is the strongest and classiest woman that I've ever met, if you watch the video, she just maintains her composure," the "America's Got Talent" host said during an appearance on "Access Hollywood Live." "I don't think she's moved by the theatrics and pageantry of it all. She signed up to do a job to help young people ... this is like a sidebar. I hope that's not what this show becomes, about the catfights … [she] signed up to be a mentor on a show that is about people accomplishing their dreams."
When "AHL" co-host Kit Hoover asked Cannon if perhaps Minaj is jealous of Carey's many career accomplishments, he shot back with a laugh, "You read the script!"
WARNING: The following video contains explicit language
After the volatile fight — during which Minaj reportedly threatened to "knock out" Carey — Cannon spoke to the mother of his 17-month-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe. "She called me and we were talking about the kids … at the end of the day she's a mom and that's my wife ... we got diapers to change and kids to raise."
Carey, 42, is "not going to let this faze her," a source tells People magazine. "She'll handle [it] with poise and grace," adds the pal. "Mariah has dealt with far worse in her career."
Although "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe is adamantly denying a report that Minaj said during the fight that if she had a gun she would have shot Carey, the show's host Ryan Seacrest admits it did get pretty heated. "It was intense, I'll be honest with you," he said on his radio show Wednesday morning. "It did go too far, to the point where the producers said, 'Let's call it a day.'"
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