“The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” a memoir penned by Mariah Carey in 2020, has renewed interest in the singer’s complicated relationship with family in the wake of the deaths of her mother, Patricia Carey, and estranged sister, Alison Carey.
Mariah confirmed the women died in separate instances on the same day during the weekend of Aug. 24-25. Her mother, believed to have been 84, was in an assisted living facility in Florida, and Alison, 63, whom Mariah refers to as ex-sister, was in hospice in New York.
A cause of each of their deaths has not been confirmed. However, Alison was known to have struggled with substance abuse and was diagnosed with HIV in 1990.
“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,” said Mariah in a released statement, shared by People. “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,” she added.
However, a look back at the “One Sweet Day” artist’s memoir reveals that she had mourned the loss of both women long before their deaths. Mariah was born in 1969 to her white mother and Black father, Alfred Roy Carey.
RIP Patricia Carey and Alison Carey 🙏
— Lambily Ian Timothy ✨🦋 (@MeIamIanTimothy) August 26, 2024
Sending love, prayers and condolences @MariahCarey 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/CC3xar1nKq
The interracial couple were already parents to Alison and a son named Morgan Carey. “That was an abomination. It was the ultimate humiliation,” Mariah wrote of her white grandmother disowning Patricia.
In a resurfaced interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Patricia said the family endured racial difficulties in trying to find a community where they fit in. She disclosed that when they purchased their first home, she had to do so without Alfred.
When the couple split in 1973, Mariah and Morgan primarily lived with their mother, an environment she described as “dysfunctional,” while their older sister stayed with her father.
The Grammy Award winner attributes her mother for nurturing her musical talents. Before becoming a mother and vocal coach, Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer. In her book, Mariah wrote, “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 continued, “Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment,” and that “a complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.” She further alleged that her mother’s bruised ego over her daughter’s talent fueled envy.
″There was a distinct shift: she made me feel like the competition, like a threat. In place of our previous bond grew a different tie, a rope tethering us through shared biology and social obligation,” the singer wrote. Despite their strained relationship, she lovingly dedicated the book to her mother.
Alison had a history of lashing out at Mariah in the media. Throughout the years, she slammed her baby sister for not being financially generous. In the memoir, Mariah claimed, “When I was 12 years old, my sister drugged me with valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine, inflicted me with third-degree burns, and tried to sell me out to a pimp.” Alison unsuccessfully sued her for $1.25 million.
Mariah Carey and her brother Morgan and mother Patricia in 1989 pic.twitter.com/i7w6hh6p3L
— 𝙣𝙞𝙠𝙖 (@careybling) February 27, 2021
Morgan did not go unscathed in the literary effort. His baby sister accused him of being violent and that he resented that she seemingly had an easier life than him and Alison. He also sued the entertainer for her recollections of their childhood. It is unclear exactly when Mariah last had contact with either of her siblings.
“I have no doubt it is emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact with my ex-brother and ex-sister,” she wrote of their estrangement.
Alfred’s bond with his youngest child also endured some strain. Mariah wrote that he felt like an outsider during her adolescence and that she struggled to understand his strict parenting. He died of cancer in 2022.
The singer often pays tribute to him on Father’s Day. Last year, she wrote that he was “shining like a sunflower up in the sky,” along with a sepia-print photo of him while enlisted in the military.
