Five-time Grammy Award-winning singer Mariah Carey is mourning the death of her mother, Patricia and sister, Alison, who passed away the same day.
“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” Carey said on Monday. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”
Carey said she treasured the time spent with her mum a week before her death. The cause of death was not revealed.
Mariah Carey’s mother, Patricia, 87, was a former opera singer and vocal coach of Irish-American descent.
In her 2020 memoir, ‘ The Meaning of Mariah Carey,’ she described her relationship with her mother as painful and confusing.
The 55-year-old said there was rivalry between them. She said Professional jealousy “comes with the territory of success, but when the person is your mother and the jealousy is revealed at such a tender age, it’s particularly painful.”
She also expressed her deep affection for her mother: “To Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always.”
Carey also had a complicated relationship with her 63-year-old sister Alison. In her memoir, she mentioned that she was estranged from her sister and her brother Morgan, stating that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me to not have any contact”.
After Carey released her memoir, Alison sued her for $1.2m (£909,780) on the grounds of “immense emotional distress”, calling it “vindictive”.
Carey’s father died of cancer at age 72 in 2002.
Mariah Carey, renowned for her powerful vocal range, is one of the most successful singers globally. Her holiday hit, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You,’ is the best-selling Christmas song ever recorded by a female artist. With a record 19 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, she has sold over 220 million records worldwide and has also served as a judge on American Idol.