Rylan Clark left 'so embarrassed' over meeting with Mariah Carey as he says 'she's promised'

Rylan Clark has told how he feels "embarrassed" after leaving Mariah Carey waiting before the pair filmed their TV special. The 36-year-old presenter sat down with the All I Want For Christmas Is You legend for a special conversation about her life and career that's set to air on the BBC in December

But although the 55-year-old singer has a reputation for being a diva, Rylan was the one who was late to the set of 'Mariah Meets Rylan'. He admitted to The Sun newspaper's TV Biz column: "She was half an hour early, so she had to wait for me. I was so embarrassed."

And despite Mariah's reputation, Rylan insisted she was down-to-earth with few demands and she has even promised to visit his beloved mum Linda next time she is in the UK. He said: "She was just so decent, like, in between when we were sort of cutting cameras and stuff like that, we were just chatting normally.

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“She’s promised to come round and she’s looking forward to meeting [his mum] Linda. Do you know what her drink was? She likes a Snapple, just like a little fruit juice.”

Mariah is not the first A-lister Rylan has been fortunate enough to interview, as he has also sat down with the likes of Madonna, Cher, and Kylie Minogue, and he is now keen to continue to "corner the diva market" with some other big female singers.

He said: "I’ve been lucky to interview Madonna, Cher, Kylie. I would love to have Céline Dion — she is next on my hit list. I feel like I’m ticking them all off the list. If I’ve cornered the diva market then great, everyone move out the f****** way, like, I’m coming through!"

Last month, Rylan revealed he'd made a quick trip to Los Angeles, where he was busy filming something set to be released around 'Christmas time'. He didn't give anything else away but did share a string of snaps on Instagram documenting his whilstestop trip which seemingly included a hike to catch the views as the sun set and a trip to Santa Monica Pier.

Captioning the post in view of his 2.3 million followers, Rylan wrote: "Back from a quick work trip to LA. Filming something special. So much fun. Coming Christmas time…." with the post also giving a little glimpse at the festive setting his found himself in, which came before Halloween has even arrived.

It wasn't until last week that Rylan revealed all as he took to Instagram with a gorgeous photo of himself and none other than Christmas queen Mariah. The BBC revealed more details, saying the multi-platinum record selling, Grammy Award-winning artist Mariah will be seen meeting Rylan for the first time and he's quizzed her about her about life, music, and of course, the festive season as her classic hit All I Want For Christmas Is You celebrates its 30th anniversary.

During her extensive interview with Rylan, Mariah discusses how she came up with the melody for her smash hit Hero, the jobs she had before she was famous, her multiple appearances on Top of the Pops and her love for the show, her inspirations – including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and George Michael, working with Jackie Chan and Westlife and her reflections on this year being the 30th anniversary of her single, All I Want For Christmas Is You and album, Merry Christmas. Plus, Rylan puts Mariah’s English accent to the test and pretends to audition her to be in the BBC’s leading continuing drama, EastEnders.