Nick Cannon’s friends didn’t believe he’d ever date Mariah Carey.
The ‘Wild ‘N Out’ star always had a "crush" on the ‘Hero’ hitmaker – who he wed in April 2008 after a whirlwind romance – and was determined to woo her and prove his pals wrong.
He said: "At one point, I was like, ‘I’m gonna get Mariah Carey!’
"It turned from my celebrity crush to, ‘Nah, she’s about to be my girlfriend.’ People were bugging, like, ‘There’s no way you can get Mariah Carey.’ I was like, ‘Watch, I’m telling you.’ "
Nick eventually met Mariah backstage at the Teen Choice Awards in 2005 and "doubled down" on his efforts to win her over – but he only really caught her eye when he turned down her request for him to star in the video for her 2008 single ‘Touch My Body’.
He recalled in a preview for his appearance on ‘Uncensored’: "She had heard me speaking all these positive, secretive little nothings in interviews and I remember seeing her backstage at the Teen Choice Awards. She stops right in front in me and was like, ‘I heard all these nice things you’ve been saying about me,’ and I said, ‘They true! Just give me an opportunity to make ’em come true’ and she smiled and they floated her off and from that day I knew she knew, from that day I doubled down but people would just laugh it off.
"Then she wanted me to star in a video, it was ‘Touch My Body’,
"I was like, ‘I’m not about to be in that video, people already think I’m corny enough! If you got me playing the nerd in your video.’ I was not going down, I pass.
"I told Mariah no, and people don’t tell Mariah no.
"I was like, ‘You got another one for me where we can get down?’ She called me and said not only have I got another video for you to be in and be my love interest, but I want you to direct it.
"Bam, I’m in there."
Though Nick, 37, and 45-year-old Mariah – who have children Moroccan and Monroe, seven, together – split in 2014, they are still "best friends".
He said recently: "That is one of my best friends in life, so it is always going to be that.
"The fact that there is no bad blood and we can still coexist, I think that is the best place for it."
Nick Cannon’s friends doubted he’d woo Mariah Carey
