2024-08-27 06:05:02
A “heartbroken” Mariah Carey announced Monday that her mother, Patricia, died over the weekend.
In a “tragic turn of events,” Carey said, her sister, Alison, died the same day. Carey, 55, offered no details about the circumstances of either woman’s death.
“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed,” Carey said in a statement. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
Carey had a complicated relationship with her family, which she detailed in her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.”
Her mother, a former opera singer, was included in the book’s dedication page.
“And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could,” Carey wrote. “I will love you the best I can, always.”
Carey told Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2020 that the book is about not fame but “emancipating” the little girl she was. She added that she did not agree with everything her mother did in her life but that she loved her.
“I feel like it’s a survivor’s story, and not everybody realized that about me,” Carey said.
In her memoir, Carey said she was raised predominantly by her mother after her parents divorced when she was 3. E! News reported that Carey wrote in her book that she and her mother grew close over a shared love of art but that the two had tough moments.
She recounted a moment when she was 14 and giggled at her mother’s singing Michael Jackson with an operatic tone, and an upset Patricia Carey told her, “You should only hope that one day you become half the singer I am.”
“Having people you love be jealous of you professionally comes with the territory of success, but when the person is your mother and the jealousy is revealed at such a tender age, it’s particularly painful,” Carey wrote.
Carey also described harrowing moments with her older siblings, Morgan and Alison, in the book. Both filed defamation lawsuits against her.
Alison, according to E! News, filed a defamation suit over Carey’s allegations that Alison subjected her to several traumatic moments when she was young, including drugging her. Her sister denied the allegations in the book.
“My sister drugged me with Valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine, inflicted me with third-degree burns, and tried to sell me out to a pimp,” Carey alleged in the book, according to the outlet.
The suit alleged that Alison was “diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression as a result of the memoir,” E! reported.
A summons listed in New York includes the details in the E! News story, but additional information about the status of the suit could not be found. New York Supreme Court records show that the defamation suit filed by Carey’s brother remains active in the court.
