Mariah Carey says her ‘heart is broken’ after mother and sister die on the same day
Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison both died on the same day, the singer said on August 26.
“I am heartbroken to have lost my mother this past weekend. Unfortunately, in a tragic turn of events, my sister also lost her life that same day,” the Grammy winner said in a statement.
“I feel blessed to have been able to spend the last week with my mother before she passed away,” the statement continued. “I am grateful for everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
The New York Times Union reported that Carey’s sister, from whom she was largely estranged, had died of organ dysfunction at the age of 63 and was in hospice care.
People Magazine first reported on the deaths and Carey’s statement.
Carey’s mother was a Juilliard-trained opera singer who Carey says was an inspiration to her from a young age.
“I sang little tunes all over the house, to my mother’s delight. And she always encouraged me,” Carey wrote in her 2020 memoir. The meaning of Mariah Carey.
Patricia was previously married to Carey’s father, Alfred Roy Carey. The parents divorced when the “Vision of Love” singer was three years old.
Carey grew up on Long Island and lived primarily with her mother after her parents divorced. Her father died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 72.
In her memoir, Carey describes in detail her complicated relationship with her mother and sister. She writes that she and her mother often clashed, causing her “so much pain and confusion,” and blamed her sister for putting her in dangerous situations as a child.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother was full of contradictions and competing realities. It was never black and white – it was a whole rainbow of emotions,” Carey wrote in her book.
“Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love binds my heart to my mother’s.”
Carey kept in touch with her mother and even recorded a duet of “O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus” for the singer’s second Christmas album in 2010.
