Legendary singer Mariah Carey announced in a statement that her mother, Patricia, and sister, Alison, have died on the same day. Patricia was 87, and Alison was 63.
“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day,” Carey told People magazine.
Carey added that she felt “blessed” that she was able to spend the last week with her mother before she passed. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time,” she said.
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The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, and People reported that Carey’s relationship with both family members was, at times, strained.
Patricia, a former opera singer, shared Mariah and her two siblings, Alison and Morgan, with Alfred Roy Carey. Alfred died in 2002.
In a 2020 interview with Gayle King promoting her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the pop diva said her mother introduced her to the music world but called their relationship “complicated.”
“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 in the book.
Also, in her book, Carey opened up about the trauma she faced at the hands of her siblings, whom she no longer has contact with.
“When I was 12 years old, 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 claimed in the memoir, according to the New York Times.
Carey’s characterizations of her sister and brother in the book led to both of them suing her in 2021. According to Reuters, Morgan’s suit was later thrown out.
