Weeks after her mother and sister tragically pass away hours apart, Mariah Carey breaks her silence about her family’s losses.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Sept. 8, Carey shared a video of her at a rehearsal before she heads to China and Brazil for some performances.
“Back at work,” she declared in the post’s caption. “It’s been a couple of rough weeks, but I appreciate everyone’s love and support so much and I can’t wait to see my fans in China & Brazil. Love you!”
Mariah Carey confirmed on Aug. 26 that not only her mother, Patricia, passed, but her sister, Alison, also died.
“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,” Carey shared in a statement. “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.”
The “Heartbreaker” hitmaker was reportedly estranged from both her sister and mother for years before their deaths. She wrote in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, that her relationship with her mother “has caused me so much pain and confusion.”
Mariah also stated in the book that she found it “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with Alison or her brother Morgan.
Carey further claimed in the memoir that her sister had abused her as a child by burning her with boiling tea. She also alleged her big sister drugged her with Valium.
Mariah Carey and Her Sister’s Legal Dispute Over Allegations From Memoir
In 2021, Mariah Carey’s sister, Alison, filed a lawsuit towards her over the allegations she made in the 2020 memoir.
“Her sister claimed “intentional 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.”
Although the summons was listed in New York, there was no additional information about the lawsuit.
Mariah Carey was notably not in touch with her sister before her death. However, she did spend the last week with her mother before her death.
Alison was Mariah’s only sister and was seven years older than her. Her only brother, Morgan, is nine years older than her. Following the release of her memoir, Mariah told Oprah Winfrey she didn’t really know her older siblings.
“We didn’t grow up together, but we did,” she explained. “Like, they were on their journeys, by the time I got into the world, they had already been damaged, in my opinion. But again, I wasn’t there. I was dropped into this world and I literally felt like an outsider amongst my own family.”
Mariah pointed out she believed her siblings viewed her life as “easier” because they grew up living with a White mother and Black father. She mainly grew up with her mother.