The 40-year-old singer, who is married to rapper-and-actor Nick Cannon, likes to see if she can trick people by wearing her husband's clothes.

She said: 'I go for walks in a semi-disguise. That's fun to me. I like to go to public places and do things that I would never get a chance to do. The other night, I went out wearing Nick's clothes.

'The problem is, if they recognise him, they're going to recognise me. If he's holding someone's hand and walking with them, they're going to look and go, 'Who is he with?' '

Mariah has also spoken of her love for her 28-year-old husband, who she married last year after a whirlwind romance.

Mariah – whose ex-husband is music executive Tommy Mottola – never thought she would settle down until she met Nick.

She told website AOL Popeater: 'I don't think I feared love because I guess I almost didn't believe in it. I didn't really trust people. I didn't really trust what it would be like to be in a relationship again because so many times it had been disappointing. But the situation with Nick is totally different because we're very similar. We have a lot of the same likes and dislikes and we have so much fun together.'

Mariah has made no secret of her desire to start a family, and has chosen names for her children even though she isn't pregnant.

She explained: 'We have to keep the name secret because if we told everybody, then somebody might use it and then we have to change it, and then it wouldn't be as good. We picked these names out a long time ago.'