Singer Mariah Carey has announced a family tragedy, saying that both her mother, Patricia, and her sister, Alison, recently died on the same day as each other.
"My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” Carey said in a statement issued on Monday. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day."
Carey said she was glad to have been able to spend the last week with her mother, who had reportedly moved to an assisted care facility in Florida several years ago. Carey’s sister, Alison, died in New York state, according to local media.
"I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time,” she added. News of the two women’s deaths was first reported by People magazine.
The pop superstar did not provide details about the causes of death. Patricia Carey was 87, according to public records.
Alison Carey died in hospice care at age 63 in Greene County, N.Y., south of Albany, according to the Times Union. The newspaper cites David Baker, a friend of Alison Carey’s who had helped her navigate housing and benefits issues, who said her death followed problems with her organ functions. She was reported to have struggled with substance abuse.
Carey, 55, has said she has complicated relationships with her family, describing her early life as a source of recurring instability. She has linked her past to the very public emotional struggles the singer endured even as her career soared to rare heights.
“I think that my tolerance level for dysfunction is so high because I grew up in a very dysfunctional environment,” Carey told NPR in 2006.
Carey had maintained ties with her mother, including singing a Christmas medley together in 2010 and spending time together with Carey's young children. But she was reportedly estranged from her sister, who sued Carey over allegations about her in the singer’s 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Describing her mother as a neglectful parent, Carey said in her memoir that Patricia, who was white, fed her childhood insecurities in a variety of ways, including not tending to her biracial daughter’s hair. But she also credited her mother — a former opera singer who trained at Juilliard — with encouraging her to sing and explore her talent.
In her memoir, Carey also alleged that her older sister repeatedly put her in dangerous situations, including giving Mariah drugs when she was 12.
Carey’s mother reportedly moved to a senior living home in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 2020. One year later, Carey sold the house in Westchester County, N.Y., that she had bought for her mother in the 1990s.
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