American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' image has taken a beating after recent allegations of a toxic workplace on the set of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The allegations have also stirred up bad memories for singer Mariah Carey after clips of her appearance on the talk show 12 years ago resurfaced on social media.

There were rumours in 2008 of Carey's pregnancy after she married comedian-rapper Nick Cannon earlier in the year.

On the talk show, DeGeneres asked Carey to confirm or deny the rumours.

When Carey tried to change the subject, DeGeneres offered her a glass of champagne to "toast not being pregnant". When the singer pretended to take a sip from the glass, DeGeneres exclaimed that she was indeed pregnant.

In an interview with entertainment website Vulture, Carey, now 50, said: "I was extremely uncomfortable with that moment is all I can say. And I really have had a hard time grappling with the aftermath."

She revealed only in 2010 that she suffered a miscarriage in 2008, soon after that interview.

The Always Be My Baby singer said in the Vulture interview that there is "an empathy that can be applied to those moments that I would have liked to have been implemented. But what am I supposed to do? It's like, 'What are you going to do?'"

She added that she "wasn't ready to tell anyone because I had had a miscarriage. I don't want to throw anyone that's already being thrown under any proverbial bus, but I didn't enjoy that moment."

Carey gave birth to twins Moroccan and Monroe in April 2011. She and Cannon divorced in 2016.