'All I Want for Christmas Is You' Songwriter Slams Mariah Carey After 'Falling Out'

Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is one of the most popular Christmas songs ever recorded, but it seems one of the song's co-writers isn't exactly Carey's biggest fan.

Walter Afanasieff, who helped pen the singer's iconic tune, recently revealed in an interview with Radio Times published on Dec. 18 that he and Carey had a "falling out" around 20 years ago.

"We had a falling out," he said of the star. "I would have hoped that in 20 years, she would have knocked on my door — but she hasn't, so..."

Carey split from her first husband, music executive Tommy Mottola, in 1997, and Afanasieff revealed that his own relationship with Carey ended around that time as well.

"I was under an exclusive contract with him," he said. "So, she left the building — she wasn't even on the label anymore — but I couldn't go and work with her because he wouldn't let me. So she found that to be a little bit of a slap in the face."

Carey may have written "All I Want for Christmas Is You" alongside Afanasieff, but he alleges that the 48-year-old tends to exclude him when discussing the composition.

"She doesn't like to acknowledge other people," he alleged. "It seems to be a problem with singers. If you see a singer talking about something that they wrote, they will probably say, 'I wrote the song when I was 12 years old, or here's another song I wrote.'"

"It doesn't matter how many interviews she's done or when she's on stage, she'll never, ever say, 'Here's the song that I wrote with Walter,'" he continued. "She's made it her modus operandi [not to mention my name]. We wrote the song together; my name is 50 percent, her name is 50 percent. We have equal shares."

Still, Afanasieff appreciates the work he's done with Carey, though he doesn't believe the feeling is mutual.

"I love Mariah Carey," he said. "She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't go both ways."

"All I Want for Christmas Is You," which was first released in 1994, has now officially become the highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 holiday song in 60 years, now behind only "The Chipmunk Song," by David Seville and The Chipmunks. The track is believed to be the best-selling modern day Christmas song and has been remixed and re-released multiple times.

In addition to Carey, Afanasieff has worked with legendary divas like Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and the late Whitney Houston, though he alleged that the women are "very insecure creatures."

"If you start working on a song with another singer, the jealousy comes out," he said. "They're very, very jealous people. So, I was working to put food on my table. I can't only work with Mariah, I have to work with other people, and I think that was a bit of a problem."

Photo Credit: YouTube / Mariah Carey