Mariah Carey Suing Former Assistant For Millions

Mariah Carey "GTFO" Music Video

You don't want to get on Mariah Carey's bad side. The musician made that abundantly clear this week. Lianna Azarian was once Carey's assistant, but those days have long since past. Now, Mariah is looking to receive millions of dollars from Azarian, claiming that she recorded "embarrassing" videos of Carey without the celebrity's knowledge. When Azarian threatened to release the videos online, Carey opted to take her one-time assistant to court.

Now, Mariah Carey is looking to receive upwards of $3 million from Lianna Azarian, if the singer-songwriter has her way in court. TMZ reports that Carey first hired Azarian has an executive assistant back in the early months of 2015. From there, it was not long before problems began with Lianna. She would reportedly go "to town" with Carey's credit card and buy personal items, claiming that she was buying the products for Carey and getting a few discounts for herself as such. Azarian said onboard as Carey's assistant until late 2017, when Carey ultimately fired Azarian. Then trouble brewed.

Once Lianna Azarian's professional standing with Mariah Carey was effectively terminated, Azarian reportedly went on the attack. Throughout her professional relationship with Carey, Azarian allegedly made secret videos of her boss repeatedly, and threatened to release them to the public unless she got $8 million from Carey.

These alleged videos of Mariah Carey featured the artist doing "personal activities," but it is believed that if they were released to the public, they would be "extremely damaging" to Carey both "personally and professionally." It is unknown what these videos depict, but it is clear that Carey does not want the public to see them. She was being blackmailed by her former employee to cough up a whole lot of dough for the privacy.

Well, Mariah Carey won't deal with that in kind. She demanded that the videos be returned, and they weren't. That's when the court soon got involved.

The current court case finds Mariah Carey suing for unspecified damages, though it is apparent from the $3 million sum from Lianna Azarian that she is looking to get proper payback from the stress and anguish she has endured from her one-time assistant. The court will ultimately have to decide, however, if Mariah Carey is in the right or in the wrong. But the musical artist seemingly made it clear that she is not at all happy.

This court battle is just at the beginning stages, and there will likely be more updates to follow -- unless the matter is settled out-of-court. Either way, with a personality as strong as Mariah Carey's, it's sure to be a dramatic state of events.

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Will Ashton

Will is an entertainment writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. His writing can also be found in The Playlist, Cut Print Film, We Got This Covered, The Young Folks, Slate and other outlets. He also co-hosts the weekly film/TV podcast Cinemaholics with Jon Negroni and he likes to think he's a professional Garfield enthusiast.