Nick Cannon thinks Mariah Carey got "a little flustered" during her disastrous New Year's Eve performance.
Nick Cannon
The 'Hero' hitmaker was left embarrassed during her
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest set on December 31 after her performance was plagued by technical difficulties, and after joking the hitches were part of a "conspiracy", the singer's ex-husband thinks the star simply fell victim to the pitfalls of live TV.
He said: "I'm a conspiracy theorist. I think the government did that. They set her up. That was a distraction.
"Anyone who knows about performing [knows that] things like that can go wrong on live television.
"I do live television all the time; I screw up on 'America's Got Talent' all the time, so when there are people in your ear saying things and stuff, I think she got a little flustered."
And the 36-year-old star - who has twins Moroccan and Monroe, five, with the 'We Belong Together' singer - thinks Mariah's response, removing her ear monitors and abandoning any attempts to lip sync, was typical of the "diva".
He joked: "But being the diva she is, she said, I'm just going to walk around and pose for seven minutes. And like Ryan Seacrest says, she can do no wrong. So she worked through it."
But Nick insisted the audience in New York's Times Square didn't mind.
Speaking to Ellen DeGeneres on an episode of her talk show airing today (16.01.17), he joked: "They were like, 'She's amazing, and her lips aren't even moving'."
Mariah previously claimed her performance was "sabotaged" by show producers.
In an audio recording she released on Twitter, she said: "I haven't really addressed the situation that happened on New Year's Eve, and in time I will. But for now, I want everyone to know that I came to New Year's Eve in New York in great spirits and was looking forward to a celebratory moment with the world.
"It's a shame that we were put into the hands of a production team with technical issues who chose to capitalise on circumstances beyond our control.
"It's not practical for a singer to sing live and be able to hear themselves properly in the middle of Times Square with all the noise, the freezing cold, the smoke from the smoke machines, and thousands of people celebrating, especially when their ear monitors are not working properly.
"Listen guys, they foiled me, thus it turned into an opportunity to humiliate me and all those who were excited to ring in the New Year with me. Eventually, I will explain this in greater detail than I can give here."
Tagged in Ellen DeGeneres Mariah Carey Nick Cannon