Nick Cannon: 'Most men are jealous of me!'

Nick Cannon has joked "most men are jealous" of him in the wake of rumors his close friendship with ex-wife Mariah Carey was responsible for her split from Bryan Tanaka.

Sources told TMZ.com that the amicable relationship between Mariah and Nick, who together are parents to five-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, left 33-year-old backing dancer Bryan consumed with jealousy, and is said to have motivated him to get his revenge by flirting with other women in front of Mariah.

The duo reportedly called time on their romance after Bryan apparently felt disrespected by Mariah's decision to make a family appearance with Nick and their twins on the orange carpet at Kids' Choice Awards last month (Mar17).

And when Entertainment Tonight interviewed Nick on Monday (10Apr17), a reporter from the news outlet asked Nick about the claims that Bryan was jealous of him.

"Most men are jealous of me. I'm joking," Nick told the ET reporter. "But I know nothing about it. I got too many of my own relationship issues to be worried about an old relationship.

"For me, at the end of the day, she's an amazing mother and we focus on our kids. That's never going to change no matter who's in my life or who's in her life."

Bryan made his feelings about the singer known on her E! reality show Mariah's World, despite her being engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer at the time. And Nick has previously hit headlines for suggesting the fledgling romance wasn't all it appeared to be. However, he insisted it was his critical eye as a producer that led to him making that remark.

"I thought the show was very produced," he said. "I didn't say that their relationship was just for show. I thought the show fabricated a lot of stuff because, as a producer, I was like, 'Oh, they positioned that. They put the cameras there.' I was watching it from that perspective. But I don't know what the relationship actually is. But if it is, salud to them!"

Nick and Mariah, who split in 2014 after six years of marriage, regularly hang out together with their children, going to dinner, parties and even on vacation together. They remain very close friends, with the former America's Got Talent host adding that "he will always love her."

"That's always my dream girl," he gushed. "Like, to me, just because we're not intimate, I'm closer with her than probably I've ever been just based off of that's my family, that's the mother of my children."