James Packer Dumped Mariah Carey While Making Wedding Plans

Mariah Carey’s romance with billionaire James Packer seemed like a sweet, sweet fantasy: top restaurants, exotic vacations, a 35-carat diamond engagement ring. But the reality was painfully obvious to onlookers during a September 14 outing in Mykonos, Greece.

The “We Belong Together” singer and the Aussie casino mogul, 49 — engaged since January — swept into Nammos restaurant with an entourage in tow. “It was a circus,” says a witness. “She was taking photos with people. James was rolling his eyes. He looked irate. Every time she walked off, he asked, ‘What is she doing now?’”

Two weeks later, the wedding was off. While they were still in Greece, Packer dumped his fiancée — who had already bought her wedding gown — while planning their vows aboard his yacht. “It was like Jekyll and Hyde,” a Carey friend reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. “Suddenly he’s like, ‘I don’t think I can do this.'”

Mariah Carey and James Packer — James Packer and Mariah Carey attend the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, held at the Waldorf-Astoria on May 14, 2016, in New York City.

The duo agreed to take some time and talk again stateside, says the source, and for weeks, Carey and Packer didn’t speak. Then on October 26, the day the exes had planned to meet, Woman’s Day Australia — quoting sources close to Packer — reported the engagement was over. As Us previously reported, the public announcement “blindsided” Carey, says the friend. “She’s devastated.”

The pair clashed soon after they began dating in June 2015. The mom of 5-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan (with estranged husband Nick Cannon, who a source claims to Us is expecting a child with pregnant ex-girlfriend Brittany Bell) proved to be “very high-maintenance,” says a source close to Carey.

Not only was she extravagant, but her diva ways grated. “I can be a bit bossy,” Carey admitted to Us in August. And the businessman, continues the Carey source, “could get angry” — although he often “wasn’t around or available.” (A Packer source denies the father of three has a temper.)

For more on Carey and Packer’s split, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.