Mariah Carey has announced the deaths of both her mother and sister, who tragically passed away on the same day this past weekend.
In a statement to TMZ, Carey confirmed the news that her mother, Patricia, and her sister, Alison, died on the same day. “My heart is shattered by the loss of my mother this past weekend. Tragically, my sister also passed away on the same day,” Carey shared.
“I feel incredibly blessed to have spent the last week with my mom before she passed,” Carey added. “I deeply appreciate everyone’s love, support, and respect for my privacy during this unimaginable time.”
Carey did not disclose the cause of death for either her mother or her sister.
Carey discussed her relations with both Patricia and Alison in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Of her mother, Carey wrote, “Ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together.”
She described their relationship as “a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.”
Patricia was a singer herself, who trained at Juilliard. Years later, Carey was joined by her mother on stage to sing a duet of “Queen of Christmas” as part of a 2010 ABC Christmas special titled Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You.
As for Alison, Carey described her as “the most brilliant and broken person I have ever known” and held her older sister responsible for exposing her to drugs and older men at a young age. “Big sisters are supposed to protect you, not pimp you out,” Carey wrote. Following the publication of the memoir, Alison sued her sister for emotional distress.