Mariah Carey shares emotional tribute after mother and sister die on same day
Mariah Carey has revealed that her mother and sister have died. (Getty)
Mariah Carey has revealed that both her mother and sister died on the same day.
On Monday night (26 August), the Grammy-Award-winning singer told People that her mother Patricia, and older sister Alison, both died over the weekend.
“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 said. “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.”
No cause of death has been given for either woman.
Patricia, a trained opera singer and vocal coach, was 87. Mariah’s father, Alfred, died of cancer in 2002. The pop superstar had a tumultuous relationship with her mother.
In her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, she wrote that professional “jealousy” had come between her and Patricia.
“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,” she said.
However, they eventually reconciled and Carey’s book was dedicated to her mum. “To Pat, my mother, who, through it all, actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always,” she wrote inside the front cover.
Alison, who was 63, is believed to have been staying in a hospice at the time of her death, according to New York newspaper Times Union.
The sisters’ relationship was also fractured, with Carey writing in her book that it was “safer” for her not to have contact with either Alison or her younger brother Morgan.
Following the publication of Carey’s memoir, Alison sued the “All I Want For Christmas Is You” hit-maker, citing “immense emotional distress”, and calling the book “heartless, vicious” and “vindictive”. She asked for damages equating to £1.1 million (then about $1.25m), but the case never made it to court.
Carey begins her Christmas Time tour in the US in November.
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