Mariah Carey‘s mother Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day last weekend, a representative for the singer confirmed to Variety.
“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 said in a statement shared with Variety. “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.”
Neither the cause nor the exact date of Patricia and Alison’s death is known at this time.
Before giving birth to Mariah and her older siblings Alison and Morgan, Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach. She was married to Alfred Roy Carey, but they split when Carey was 3 years old.
Carey’s relationship with her mother had ups and downs. “Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It’s never been only black-and-white — it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions,” wrote the 55-year-old Grammy winner in her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” She added, “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.”
Carey mentioned her mother in the dedications of her memoir, writing, “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.”
In 2010, Carey and her mother memorably performed together on the ABC Christmas special “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You,” dueting “O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus.”
Carey also had an estranged relationship with her sister Alison, recently describing her on Oprah Winfrey’s Apple TV+ interview series as “troubled” and “traumatized.” In her book, Carey wrote that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with Alison and her brother Morgan.
People magazine reported the news first.
Source Agencies
