To preserve his eternal youth Dorian Gray traded his soul, while it was said that Queen Cleopatra bathed daily in sour donkey milk to delay the ageing process.
But Mariah Carey, the US pop star and self-confessed diva, has another method: refuse to acknowledge ageing altogether.
The singer, 56, has said that ageing “just doesn’t happen” to her because she “does not acknowledge time”. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, Carey was asked how she deals with getting older.
“I don’t allow it — it just doesn’t happen. I don’t know time. I don’t know numbers. I do not acknowledge time,” she replied.
Carey appears on the front cover of this month’s edition of Harper’s Bazaar
ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI/HARPER’S BAZAAR
The Fantasy singer, who has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, has spoken before about her ability to ignore time. Speaking to People magazine in 2015 she said: “I think I have to remain eternally oblivious to age.
“Honestly, when you put a number on it yourself, it’s just like, why? Why do that?”
In a 2014 interview with Out magazine she was asked about her lengthy career — which now spans more than three decades — as one of the world’s most famous pop stars.
“First of all, don’t round up. If you’re going to round, round down!” she said. “I don’t count years, but I definitely rebuke them — I have anniversaries, not birthdays, because I celebrate life, darling.
“I’m eternally 12 years old,” she added.
Carey promoting her album, Emotions, in New York in 1991
RON GALELLA/GETTY IMAGES
In 2015 she was asked in an interview with James Corden how many No 1 singles she had had.
“Yes, 18, that’s why my age stays 18,” she replied. “We’ll celebrate my 18th birthday with the fact that I’ve had 18 No 1s.”
She has also refused ever to publicly acknowledge her age. Officially, Carey was born on March 27, 1969 in Huntington, New York.
“I don’t have a birthday,” she has joked. “I was just dropped here. It was a fairyland experience.”
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Her beauty regime is also intensive, with Carey revealing she avoids harsh lighting and heavy make-up. She said her diet consists of no carbohydrates and eating “Norwegian salmon and capers every day”.
Carey, a mother of two, has also revealed that she sleeps up to 15 hours a night. US media has previously reported she often hires someone to massage her while she sleeps.