Though the two first met in 2005 at the Teen Choice Awards, they didn't start dating until three years later, right around the same time that Mariah released her music video for "Bye Bye," which featured Nick. Then, after just six weeks of dating, Mariah tied the knot with comedian Nick Cannon on her private island in the Bahamas in April 2008. Two and a half years after walking down the aisle, Mariah announced her pregnancy, and the couple welcomed twins Monroe and Moroccan in April 2011 on their three-year wedding anniversary. According to her memoir, she and Nick "got married so quickly" because they wanted to start a family. "I sincerely thought I would never have kids. Our relationship changed that," she wrote, per Us Weekly.
In January 2015, TMZ shocked fans by announcing that Nick had reportedly filed for divorce from Mariah the month before. As Mariah wrote in her memoir, "Making the necessary adult adjustments to being working parents in entertainment took its toll on our relationship, and the end of our marriage came fast, as it began." By November 2016, the divorce was finalized, and the two agreed to joint custody of their children. Since then, the exes have become amicable co-parents and still speak fondly of each other. As Nick told Variety in June 2020, "We're doing whatever we can to make sure their upbringing is as healthy as can possibly be and that we're as healthy as we can possibly be. And that's where we are to this day."