Mariah Carey has shared that Yankee baseball player Derek Jeter played an important role in her decision to divorce from Tommy Mottola.

In an interview on The Oprah Conversation, the singer opens up about her relationship with Derek in the late 1990s.

“Before you divorced Tommy Mottola, you met Yankee baseball player Derek Jeter, and you say he served a very high purpose in your life,” Oprah said in the clip, referring to her upcoming memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

She continued, “This was one of those situations of the right person at the right place and the right time. What was it about Derek? He got his own song too, right?”

“He got his own song,” Mariah quipped. “He got a few songs. He was a catalyst that helped me get out of that relationship because I believed that there was somebody else. It was the racial situation, his mom is Irish, his dad is Black. But he was also very ambiguous looking to me. I didn’t know who he was, we met and I’ve written songs about it.”

“And honestly, I don’t think it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he was the love of my life,'” she continued. “Like, at the time I did, because I didn’t think I would ever meet anybody who wouldn’t- What’s the word? I used the word, I just thought about this last night. Not looked down on but feel superior to me because of the fact that I’m not one way or another in most people’s minds, and they have preconceived notions, whatever.”

“But he was a catalyst. And I think that it was beautiful,” she said.

We’re so happy things happened the way they were supposed to. We love you, Mariah.