Mariah Carey gets vocal about her emotional and physical breakdown

American singer Mariah Carey recently opened up about her alleged breakdown in 2001 while discussing women in the music industry.

According to the magazine People, in a new cover story with Variety for its annual Power of Women issue, the musical superstar said, "It was an emotional and physical breakdown, but it wasn't a nervous breakdown, because you don't recover from that really."

"And even my therapist was like, 'You didn't have a breakdown; you had a diva fit and people couldn't handle it," she added.

While she always tried hard to keep a smile on her face even during difficult moments, Carey -- who spends more time with The Fresh Air Funds' Camp said that ultimately it was her downfall.

"These people are here making money off me; why don't they care if nobody's got an umbrella for me, and it's a sunny shoot? And the minute I was like, 'I'm not fine; I need a day off, I need a moment,'" she continued, "Nobody could handle it because they infantilized me from the beginning."

Now, the 49-year-old star acknowledges that she's "like a petulant child" -- and that's just fine for her.

"My true fans know this. I'm eternally 12," she said. "But we're artists.