Mariah Carey sued by sister over ‘vindictive’ claim she drugged and abused her as a child
Mariah Carey alleged her sister abused her in her memoir (Getty)
Mariah Carey is being sued over claims in her memoir that her older sister Alison Carey drugged and abused her when she was a child.
Mariah described her upbringing, relationships, career and struggled with her biracial identity in her memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, released in 2020.
One of the more shocking claims in the book was that her sister Alison, who is eight years older than her, drugged and abused her.
In a chapter on their relationship titled “Dandelion Tea”, Mariah wrote: “When I was 12 years old, my sister drugged me with Valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine, inflicted me with third-degree burns, and tried to sell me out to a pimp.”
She continued: “She threw boiling hot tea on me… my back was splattered with third-degree burns.
“I couldn’t recognise it as mine. She burned my back and my trust. Any faint hope I’d held up to that point of having a big sister became scorched earth.”
She continued later: “Alison has burned me in many ways and more times than I can count… The promise of her life was squandered in a tragic series of cheap bargains rather than being redeemed through the difficult, lifelong work of recovery and rebuilding oneself.”
Mariah also claimed that her sister, who she described as “the most brilliant and broken person I have ever known”, once left her with a boyfriend who made advances on her. She added: “Big sisters are supposed to protect you, not pimp you out.”
Now, Alison is suing Mariah for $1.25 million (£916,000), according to Variety, for “the infliction of immense emotional distress caused by defendant’s heartless, vicious, vindictive, despicable and totally unnecessary public humiliation of defendant’s already profoundly damaged older sister”.
Mariah Carey’s sister Alison said she is ‘profoundly damaged’ after attending ‘satanic worship meeting’ as a child.
Alison said her famous sister has “presented no evidence to substantiate these serious allegations” against her.
The lawsuit, filed Monday (1 February) with the New York County Supreme Court, claims: “[Mariah] uses her status as a public figure to attack her penniless sister [Alison], generating sensational headlines describing her lurid claims to promote sales of her book.
“[Mariah’s] cruel and outrageous allegations have devastated the plaintiff.
“Already struggling with the unspeakable trauma of her childhood and having her own children abandon her, she has become severely depressed and uncharacteristically tearful since the publication of defendant’s book and now struggles, after a long time clean, with alcohol abuse.”
Alison Carey alleged in her lawsuit that her sister Mariah “made these outrageous claims knowing that [Alison] is profoundly and permanently damaged as a result of being forced by defendant’s and plaintiff’s mother, while a pre-teen, to attend terrifying middle-of-the-night satanic worship meetings that included ritual sacrifice and sexual activity”.
Alison said she suffers from anxiety, depression and PTSD from her upbringing. She is representing herself in the case.
