Mariah Carey’s mother, Patricia, and her sister Alison died on the same day, the singer said Monday.
“I am heartbroken to have lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day,” the Grammy-winning singer 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 appreciate everyone’s love, support, and respect for my privacy during this time.”
The Times Union reported Monday that Alison, who was largely estranged from Carey, died at age 63 from complications with her organ function after being placed in hospice care.
The magazine People was the first to report the news of Carey’s deaths and statement.
Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer whom Carey credits with inspiring her from a young age.
FILE – Mariah Carey appears with her mother Patricia and daughter Monroe during a ceremony honoring her with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, August 5, 2015.
(Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
“I would sing little tunes around the house, much to my mother’s delight. And she always encouraged me,” she wrote in her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.”
Patricia was previously married to Alfred Roy Carey, the singer’s father. The parents divorced when the “Vision of Love” singer was 3 years old. Carey grew up in Suffolk County on Long Island and lived primarily with her mother after her parents’ divorce. Her father died of cancer in 2002 at age 72.
Carey detailed her complicated relationship with her mother and sister in her memoir, in which she wrote that she and her mother often clashed, causing her “much pain and confusion,” and accused her sister of putting her in unsafe situations as a child.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been filled with contradictions and competing realities. It has never been just black and white, it has been a whole rainbow of emotions,” Carey wrote in the book. “Our relationship is a thorny rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love ties my heart to my mother’s.”
Carey maintained contact 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.
