Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez stand as giants in the music world, yet that doesn’t mean their paths cross often, or even that they’ve ever truly met. Their story, or lack thereof, centers around a phrase that has echoed across the internet for decades.
Carey, 56, sparked an unforgettable meme back in 2003. When asked about Lopez, also 56 at the time, on a German talk show, her simple reply was, "I don’t know her." Fast forward to today, and Carey is once again shedding light on her relationship, or the absence of one, with the Grammy-nominated artist.
"Can you believe how much ‘I don’t know her’ has become part of our language?" Andy Cohen asked Carey during a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Wednesday, October 1. The question referred to the infamous quote that has become a staple meme.
Carey reflected on her iconic line. She said she was being honest when she first uttered the words. She doesn’t understand why it became such a huge deal. Usually, honesty doesn’t grab so much attention, she noted.
Cohen, 57, pressed on, asking the question fans have wondered for years: "To be clear, you still don’t know her, right?"
Carey let out a sigh before giving her candid reply. She asked, "How could I suddenly know her, you know?" This unfiltered response brought bursts of laughter from the studio audience. Cohen simply nodded his head in agreement.
He added, chuckling, "It’s wild how much time we’ve spent in these chairs talking about whether you know her."
The supposed friendship, or rather, the notorious lack of one, between Carey and Lopez has been a hot topic since Carey’s now-famous comment in the early 2000s. Both stars were seeing their careers soar then.
A decade later, Carey fueled more talk of a rivalry. She did not immediately give Lopez a standing ovation after Lopez’s 10-minute performance. This happened during the May 2013 season finale of American Idol.
Carey, who had performed earlier in the show, smiled while the three other judges quickly rose to applaud Lopez. After this perceived slight, Carey’s representative spoke to Us Weekly. They explained in a statement that the singer’s slow reaction was due to a wardrobe issue.
“Mariah stood up and gave Jennifer Lopez a standing ovation,” the representative clarified in May 2013. “She was wearing a fully beaded Tom Ford dress that was not easy to manage. But she definitely gave J. Lo a standing ovation.”
Lopez, for her part, told Cohen in a June 2014 episode of Watch What Happens Live that her supposed feud with Carey was not real.
"I know from what was said before. I have read things she has said about me that were not the best," Lopez said at the time. "But we have never met. I mean, we do not know each other. I think it is a little bit about rumors of things that happened in the past. I am not really aware of those. But I do not know."
The "Jenny From the Block" singer added that she held no grudges over the viral meme. She stated, "I would love to meet her. I would love to be her friend. I think she is incredibly talented. I have always been a fan of hers. ‘My All’ is one of my favorite songs of all time. I simply adore her. It makes me sad to hear anything negative because I am a fan of hers."
However, a year later, Lopez faced accusations of having issues with Carey again. She was caught texting during Carey’s performance at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.
"There is no [dispute]. I will tell you why. Let me tell you something. First of all, the texting thing was not fair. I saw a lot of the performance," Lopez told Cohen in February 2016 during another Watch What Happens Live appearance. "It was a long performance, okay? I watched almost all of it."
The Wedding Planner actress commented, "Maybe I looked down for a second. People said, ‘Look at her! Look at her!’ How unfair. How unfair. I was watching her the whole time."
Meanwhile, Carey spoke about her famous 2000s comment about Lopez in November 2018. She told Pitchfork she never meant for it to be a negative jab.
"I was actually trying to say something nice. Or say nothing at all," she explained. "I try to stay out of it because you cannot drown in that. I do not know how people read comments all the time and survive."