Mariah Carey is suffering through not one, but two unimaginable losses. As first reported by People and confirmed by Billboard on Monday (Aug. 26), the vocalist’s mother, Patricia, and sister, Alison, have both died, passing away within hours of one another on the same day over the weekend.
In a statement shared with Billboard, Carey wrote, “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,” she continued. “I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed.”
The five-time Grammy winner added, “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
No further details about the nature of Patricia and Alison’s deaths have been made public.
Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach. She was married to Alfred Roy Carey, with whom she welcomed Alison, Mariah and a third child — a son named Morgan — before the couple divorced when the “Obsessed” singer was 3, according to People. Alfred died of cancer in 2002.
Carey — who herself is a mom to two kids, twins Moroccan and Monroe — has been open about her complicated relationship with her family. In her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the superstar recalled how her therapist once encouraged her to “literally rename and reframe my family” for her own “sanity and peace of mind”: “My mother became Pat to me, Morgan my ex-brother and Alison my ex-sister … I had to stop expecting them to one day miraculously become the mommy, big brother and big sister I fantasized about,” she wrote.
“Ours is a story of betrayal and beauty,” Mimi added of Patricia in the book. “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 … 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.”
