Pop diva Mariah Carey today denied she suffered a nervous breakdown last year, insisting all she needed was more sleep.
The singer also said it was “absolutely not true” that she tried to kill herself in July 2001, following critical reviews of her film, Glitter.
“I’m far too much of a spiritual person to do that,” the 32-year-old told US TV show Dateline NBC.
“I would never get to that point. That’s God’s choice when it’s time for me to go.”
She said it was wrong to describe her stay in a hospital as the result of a nervous breakdown.
“Because a nervous breakdown, you know, you don’t recover from so quickly. All I needed was, like, five hours sleep.”
Carey’s career nose-dived last year when the movie Glitter, and her album of the same name, both flopped.
She spent two weeks at Silver Hill, an exclusive Connecticut hospital that specialises in mental illness and addiction.
Carey said: “At a certain point I said: ’You know what? Forget this. Forget this whole career at this moment, because it’s too much for me. I’m overly tired. I can’t do it as a human being.’
“I was, like, ’You know what, it’s time for me to deal with myself as a regular person.”’
Carey, who has sold more records than any woman in history, received a multi-million dollar pay-off from EMI earlier this year after the record company dropped her.
She is now relaunching her career with new album Charmbracelet, which is released on Universal’s Island Def Jam label.