Nick Cannon Responds After Nicki Minaj Curses Out His Wife, Mariah Carey, During 'American Idol' Auditions

At the American Idol auditions in Charlotte earlier this week, judge Nicki Minaj had a heated altercation with co-judge Mariah Carey as Keith Urban sat between the superstars.

“I told them I’m not [expletive] putting up with your [expletive] highness over here,” Minaj reportedly said during the interaction, according to TMZ.

Meanwhile, Carey’s responses are inaudible in a video that was released by the celebrity gossip site.

Taping for the hit talent competition was halted after the shouting match.

Now, Carey’s husband, Nick Cannon, is speaking out in defense of his wife. Wednesday morning, he spoke with Access Hollywood, calling his wife “strong” and “classy,” while not mentioning Minaj at all.

“When you think about what the show is actually about and represents … I feel like it’s taking away from the quality of what ‘Idol’ is all about. This is about people accomplishing their dreams, experts guiding these young people to do what they’ve done.

My wife is the strongest and classiest woman that I’ve ever met, if you watch the video, she just maintains her composure … I don’t think she’s moved by the theatrics and pageantry of it all. She signed up to do a job to help young people accomplish their dreams and this is like a sidebar. I hope that’s not what this show becomes, about the cat fights. The show is solely about a singing competition, that’s why America loves these shows, they want to see people reach a certain goal or win … and then to make it about something it’s not, it kind of shows that the producers and the network are losing their foot a little bit,” Cannon said.

Apparently, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest does not mind the catfights between Minaj and Carey one bit.

"We want that! We want them to be on this panel together," Seacrest said on his radio show Wednesday. "This is a good team, a great team, to go out and look for the next American Idol . . . the feedback that they give is very good.”

Is the feud between Minaj and Carey making you more interested in the show, or do you think the feud is taking away from what ‘American Idol’ represents and its focus on the talent of the competitors?