(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Mariah Carey says she refused to reveal the gender identity of her twins to avoid undue attention.

The legendary singer announced she was pregnant last year December after being married to husband Nick Cannon since 2008. The star has gone on to detail she is expecting a boy and a girl ending intense speculation regarding the pair. But Mariah reveals she deliberately withheld details of their sex to maintain their blissful anonymity.

"Even before we announced it was twins, I was trying to keep everything genderneutral because I didn't want to impose an identity on them too soon," she told Life & Style magazine.

However Mariahs reluctance only fuelled intense conversations over social networking sites over the possible gender of the twins. The star is happy to now quell speculation confirming her shock at the publicity it garnered.

"There were fan contests on Twitter about what gender they are and rumours about them being two boys or two girls -- but nobody guessed this," she added. (C) Cover Media