Mariah Carey tragically confirmed that her mother and sister both died on the same day. The hitmaker, 55, broke the news this Monday, August 26, 2024, as she revealed the pair, Patricia, 87, and Alison, 63, had breathed their last over the weekend.
"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", she told People Magazine. "I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed." Mariah Carey then added: "I appreciate everyone's love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time."
Though no other detail about their cause of death has yet been revealed, a source told The Sun that Alison, Mariah's sister, was receiving home hospice care in the lead up to her passing. The Daily Mirror has reached out for a comment.
"Alison was on home hospice care for the last three weeks of her life", Alison's close friend and carer Dave Baker told the publication. He also went on to reveal that she had been suffering from a "problem with internal organs".
Dave then added: "Beneath a tough exterior Alison was a highly intelligent, warm, and sensitive person. I have known her for nine years and as her friend and in recent months her carer I will miss her greatly. Farewell Alison. May you now find peace, your tortured soul forever free from earthly pain."
Patricia - who divorced Mariah's late father Alfred Roy Carey in 1973 - was an opera singer and vocal coach before giving birth to her first child, whilst Alison endured some personal struggles including homelessness throughout her life and was estranged from her superstar sibling for a number of years.
Mariah once confessed in her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, that, for her own wellbeing, it was "emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact" with Alison or her brother Morgan at that time.
In November 2023, Alison revealed she had lost all of her teeth amid her estrangement from her famous sister. Alison shared her new living condition in a video posted on social media, explaining that it's "almost impossible" to go about her day to day life.
She said: "I'm Alison Carey, unfortunately I'm living without teeth. I haven't been able to replace them. I wish I could replace them but I just don't have the money, so this is where I stand. It's almost impossible to get things done without teeth. That's all I really have to say."
But Alison was also seemingly estranged from her mother. In August 2020, she launched a lawsuit against Patricia, accusing her of allegedly permitting strangers to sexually abuse her during Satanic rituals in her childhood. The following year, Alison launched a lawsuit against Mariah claiming her pop star sister's memoir had caused her more emotional distress.
The Meaning of Mariah Carey, published in 2020, saw the singer criticise Alison heavily throughout the book; alleging her now-late sister offering her cocaine as a child and "would barter her body for money or drugs".
Mariah's relationship with mother Patricia was equally tumultuous, as she made a handful of candid revelations about their bond in her autobiography, writing: "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. Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment," Mariah added in her memoir. "A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother's."
In 2010, however, Mariah and Patricia had managed to put the past to rest, coming together for the ABC show, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You to perform a duet of O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus.
(Mirror)
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