EVERY December Mariah Carey’s festive hit reminds us that Christmas is coming around – and now she’s inadvertently given us a life lesson for the new year.
Her long-term boyfriend, 40-year-old Bryan Tanaka, announced on Instagram this week: “With mixed emotions, I share this personal update regarding my amicable separation from Mariah Carey after seven extraordinary years together.”
He added that it was mutual and they would “embark on different paths” and “separate journeys”.
But then it was reported that the real reason behind the split was because he wants to have children and she doesn’t, because “that’s not where she is at”.
Of course it’s not where she’s at.
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For goodness sake, the woman is 54 years old.
I don’t blame her for not wanting a baby at that age.
I know I certainly wouldn’t.
When she and dancer Bryan got together in 2016, most would have thought that Mariah was already knocking on for baby-making at 47.
Plus, she had already spoken about her family being complete after having such a difficult pregnancy with her ex when she had twins who are now 12.
So you would imagine that if Bryan was desperate to become a dad, he’d have dealt with it long before the seven-year itch set in.
Nobody, apart from them, truly knows for sure why they split, but the fact that people believe it is because she doesn’t want a baby at 54 is just frightening.
And sadly it shows the worrying trend for believing we can have children so late in life.
Now that science has intervened, women can theoretically become a mum in so many ways — from biological and surrogacy to frozen eggs and embryos.
And thanks to celebrities who are having kids later and later in life, it also looks very, very easy.
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Take Janet Jackson, who somehow gave birth at 50, and Naomi Campbell, who revealed on Instagram earlier this year she has become a mother for the second time via a surrogate at 53.
Victoria Coren Mitchell welcomed a baby in November at 51.
I wish them well, but we all have to realise that celebrity women are often very different to the rest of us.
Not only do they look years younger than they are, but they can afford to have all the treatment that a clinic can provide to become pregnant in the first place.
And after the baby is born, they have the cash to pay for staff to look after their kids when they are the ones really needing an afternoon nap.
Because as well as the obvious fertility issues, we all know that running around after your toddler in your fifties is much more tiring than doing it in your twenties.
There are plenty of much older fathers too — Rod Stewart, Robert De Niro and Elton John, to name but a few.
But let’s face it, fatherhood is biologically very different to motherhood.
And in the normal world it is usually the women, not the men, who are left holding the babies.
Running around after a toddler
I am by no means against older mothers — because I am one.
I loved becoming a mum in my forties and think women of a certain age can be better parents.
But I already feel old at the school gates and I was a full decade younger than Mariah when I joined the mother-hood gang.
Surely there has to be some kind of limit to expectations?
Although nobody can tell a woman when the right time to have a baby is, surely it should never be seen as the norm to have one when you’re a handful of years away from your bus pass.
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THE Masked Singer is back with celebrities hiding inside funny costumes.
And judge Davina McCall has revealed a secret of her own – she wears sexy matching undies every day, even if she is on her own.
In meetings she secretly thinks, “You don’t know . . . you don’t know . . . you don’t know”.
Erm, actually, I think now Davina, we do know.
Prank DJ will be too toxic
SOCIAL media can be a wonderful thing but it can also be absolutely disgusting – and so can those who use it.
Wedding DJ Leigh Brookfield filmed himself deliberately urinating on an older man who was a cancer patient.
In the film, the man is telling Brookfield about his prostate problems.
He feigned sympathy, then sprayed the man’s back with urine when his face was turned away and posted it on Snapchat.
The 40-year-old has now pleaded guilty to common assault and on Facebook apologised, saying it was just a prank that he and his mates did.
What a horrible human being.
But it’s great to know that he will have lost work for months to come.
No right-minded bride and groom would ever want him at their wedding after this.
A PHOTO of the Argentinian president Javier Milei brandishing a truncheon was shared on his social media account this week, with the festive message: “Happy holidays, and be careful not to become a communist.”
And we thought Trump was bad.
SHOPPERS have been left baffled because High Street store WHSmith has changed its sign to read “WHS”, which looks very similar to NHS.
But who cares what they’re called, as long as they’re filling units on the High Street that would be turned into vape stores or takeaways if they weren’t there.
Golden chance to help
JACK GREALISH’S terrified family hit the panic button when raiders burgled his home on Wednesday and nicked £1million of watches and jewellery.
Thankfully the police arrived quickly at the Man City star’s pad.
Jack’s break-in comes in the same week that the police have been told they must attend the scene of all domestic burglaries within an hour.
You’d think that goes without saying, but apparently not.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council says that “golden hour” inquiries see more arrests and better recovery of stolen property.
Plus it gives victims peace of mind and promotes confidene in the police.
It follows a two-year trial in Manchester where charge rates rose from three to eight per cent.
I was burgled in the middle of the night in Manchester in 2021.
I rang 999 and the police arrived within 30 minutes, deployed sniffer dogs in my garden and then chatted to me over a cup of tea.
They never recovered my laptop, but they did give me something much more important – the reassurance that they had my back.
I hope cops stick to this new guidance because nobody should feel it is pointless calling the police.
And sadly, these days, we often do.
Smart move
A HOLIDAY company is booming after offering off-grid breaks where staff confiscate guests’ smartphones.
The company – Unplugged – puts the gadgets in a locked box and hands over an old Nokia for emergencies.
It makes perfect sense. I remember the days when our biggest worry was getting a top score on the mobile’s Snake game instead of constant smartphone emails.
My New Year’s resolution is to try to leave my iPhone out of the bedroom.
But I’m confident we will be snuggled up together again by mid-January.
MUSTN’T it be lovely to be absolutely rolling-in-it stinking rich?
Declan Donnelly has paid £2.25million to buy the house next door to him because it is an “eyesore”.
He plans to spruce up the London home, which had been turned into flats and had fallen into disrepair.
Surely we would all do the same if we had the cash.
SOPHIE WINKLEMAN has proved that not all actresses who marry into the Royal Family turn into bridezillas.
She says that when she married Lord Frederick Windsor, she barely knew the guests, and her mother-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent, “took full personal charge of it all and did it brilliantly, including what dress I was wearing”.
Imagine the face on Meghan if Camilla had tried to do that.
