Pop sensation Mariah Carey shared the devastating family news of the passing of her mother, Patricia, and older sister, Alison, who both died on the same day over the weekend.
The five-time Grammy award winner told People magazine:
"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, 55, continued:
"I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed."
"I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time."
The magazine stated the causes of death of the two women remain undisclosed.
Fans sent Carey messages of love as she processes her grief.
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
Patricia was a Juilliard-trained former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish descent. She was 84.
She and her ex-husband Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer who was of African-American and Afro-Venezuelan lineage, welcomed three children, daughters Alison, and Mariah, and son Morgan.
The couple divorced when Carey was three years old.
In 2002, Roy Carey died from cancer at the age of 72.
Carey had a complicated relationship with her mother, which the singer mentioned in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
"Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities," she wrote in her book. "It's never been only black-and-white — it's been a whole rainbow of emotions."
She continued:
"Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment."
"A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother's."
Given the fact that Carey inherited her mother's vocal talent, their relationship became complex due to its competitive nature.
She added that professional jealousy "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."
Despite their contentious relationship, Carey expressed love for her mother in the memoir's dedication, writing:
“To Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could."
"I will love you the best I can, always.”
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
Carey and her sister were not particularly close.
According to the Times Union, a newspaper in New York State, Alison died at 63 at her home under hospice care. She was estranged from Carey in recent years.
At least at the time of writing, Carey touched on the complex sibling relationship in her memoir, expressing that it was "emotionally and physically safer" for Alison "not to have any contact" with her or her younger brother Morgan.
In 2020, Alison filed a $1.25 million lawsuit against Carey in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleging that the singer defamed her in the memoir, which Alison said was "vindictive" and gave her "immense emotional distress."
In her memoir, Carey alleged Alison drugged her when she was 12, once inflicted third-degree burns on her, and attempted to recruit her as a sex worker for a pimp. The Times Union noted that the outcome of that case was not immediately clear.
Fans continued sending Carey uplifting comments during this difficult time.
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
@mariahcarey/Instagram
Carey rose to fame in the early 1990s starting with her self-titled debut album, which spawned the smash hits "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," and "I Don't Wanna Cry," all of which charted at number 1 in the US.
The R&B songstress was known for her five-octave vocal range and the use of her signature whistle register in many of her record-smashing tunes.
Billboard ranked her as the most successful artist of the decade with eleven consecutive years of U.S. number-one singles.
She rocketed to international superstardom with the best-selling albums Music Box (1993), Daydream (1995), Butterfly (1997), and The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), the latter of which became one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century based on IFPI certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking.
Carey is set to embark on her Mariah Carey's Christmas Time tour on November 6 in honor of the 30th anniversary of her popular 1994 holiday album Merry Christmas.
The song "All I Want for Christmas Is You," from that Christmas album, is the best-selling holiday single by a female artist of all time.
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@mandymooremm/Instagram
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