Mariah Carey is grieving the recent deaths of her mother and sister, who the singer says died “on the same day.”
“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,” Mariah Carey said in a statement to CNN on Monday.
Details about what caused the deaths of Patricia Carey and Alison Carey, respectively, were not provided by the pop star. Patricia Carey was reportedly 87. Alison Carey, a resident of Coxsackie, New York, was 63, according to a Times Union newspaper article about her death.
The “All I Want for Christmas” singer added in her statement: “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.”
Patricia Carey was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and a vocal coach. She was married to Mariah Carey’s father Alfred Roy, from whom she separated when Mariah Carey was three-years-old. Roy died in 2002.
In her 2020 memoir “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” Mariah Carey opened up about her “complicated” relationship with her mother, writing that ″like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities.”
Despite their sometimes-strained relationship, Mariah Carey included her mother in the opening dedication of the book.
“And 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,” she wrote.
Mariah Carey was reportedly estranged from her sister Alison Carey, who sued her in 2021 for intentional infliction of emotional distress caused by some of the contents in Mariah Carey’s memoir.
In the lawsuit filed in New York, Alison Carey claimed her younger sister used her book as a means to “to humiliate and embarrass” her, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by CNN.
According to online court records, Mariah Carey never filed a legal response to the claim.
Mariah Carey is one of three children. In addition to Alison Carey, Patricia Carey was also mom to son Morgan Carey.
