Mariah Carey says she comes from a 'handicapped' upbringing

The number one selling female recording artist of all time Mariah Carey says her rough upbrining was a 'handicap' in her success.

Mariah says she struggled to become a singer, because she was raised in a poor one-parent family.

Mariah told Britain's Hello magazine: "I feel like I came from a handicapped place. To have grown up in a single parent home, to be bi-racial, to not have any money, to have to fight to succeed. "No-one but my mom believed in me. First, you have to have faith and then you have to act. And that is what I have always done."

She did, however, said her difficult upbringing made her more determined to succeed.

In the same interview Mariah says she isn't in any hurry to have kids.

"What I want is to have children in a good way, with the right husband, with the right family life," she adds. And on the subject of children, she hopes she'd only get pregnant when she was in wedlock "But who knows? Five years from now I might get hysterical and say, 'I have to have kids!' But I don't think so."

Carey also said she regrets marrying Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola and wouldn't do it again, even if he did help make her a star.

Go ahead Mariah!