Nick Cannon Defends Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve Performance: "She Worked Through It"

America's Got Talent host opens up about his ex's lip-syncing

By Francesca Bacardi Jan 16, 2017 4:50 PMTags
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Nick Cannon will always have Mariah Carey's back.

The America's Got Talent host appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Monday and opens up to the host about his ex-wife's headline-making New Year's Eve performance. Although he first makes some jokes about it, Cannon ultimately defends Carey.

"You know me, I'm a conspiracy theorist. I think the government did that!" Cannon jokes. "They set her up! That was a distraction!"

Carey blamed her performance snafu on malfunctioning sound equipment, which Cannon says he's had bad experiences with as well.

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"Anyone who knows about performing and having inner-ears, things like that can go wrong on live television," Cannon tells Ellen DeGeneres. "I screw up on America's Got Talent all the time. So when there's people in your ear saying things and stuff, I think she got a little flustered."

Cannon, who shares twins Moroccan Cannon and Monroe Cannon with Carey, lauds how she handled the situation.

"Being the diva that she is, she said, 'I'm just going to walk around and pose for 7 minutes,'" he recalls, adding, "and like Ryan Seacrest said, she can do no wrong. So she worked through it."

Despite her performance going viral immediately, Cannon says the thousands of people in Times Square didn't care about her lip-syncing. "They're like, 'She's amazing and her lips aren't even moving!'" he jokes.

Cannon also opens up about his hospital stay over the holidays, and how he had to endure about five blood transfusions. Now that he's feeling better, he tells Ellen that he's trying to handle his Lupus in a "holistic, homeopathic way."

We're just glad to see he's doing better!