Mariah Carey said she “can’t fight” her tendency to be a diva, as she posed topless on the cover of a magazine.

The songstress, 47, bared her curves for America’s Paper magazine, appearing in underwear and fishnet tights with her hair hiding her naked chest.

In the accompanying interview, Carey quipped that she had “never had a diva moment”.

But she added: “Actually, I have had diva moments, and then people can’t handle it.

“I guess it’s a little intense, because I come from a true diva: My mother is an opera singer. And that’s a real diva, you know – Juilliard diva.

“And so other people that are like, ‘I’m a diva,’ it’s like, ‘Honey, you don’t know what a diva is, you didn’t grow up with my mom’.”

Mother-of-two Carey added: “And I mean it as a compliment, or I wouldn’t be the person I am without experiencing that.

“And so when people hear me say, like, ‘Dahling da da da da’ and talk that way, it’s kinda like I’m channelling my mother.”

“I can’t fight it,” added the singer.