“I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of love, support, and respect for my privacy during this unbearable time,” Mariah Carey shared with heartfelt emotion.
PEOPLE has confirmed that Mariah Carey’s mother, Patricia, and her sister, Alison, tragically passed away on the same day over the weekend.
“My heart is shattered by the loss of my mother this past weekend,” Mariah, 55, said in an exclusive statement. “To add to this heartbreak, my sister also lost her life that very same day.”
The Grammy-winning singer expressed gratitude for the time she spent with her mother in her final days. “I feel blessed to have been able to share the last week with my mom before she passed,” she added. “I sincerely appreciate everyone’s love and support, and thank you for honoring my privacy during this impossible time.”
At this moment, no further details about Patricia and Alison’s causes of death have been released.
Patricia, once married to Alfred Roy Carey, was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach. Together, they had three children: Alison, Mariah, and their son Morgan. The couple divorced when Mariah was just 3 years old. Throughout her life, Mariah’s relationship with her mother was complex, despite sharing the gift of music.
In her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, she reflected on her journey with her mother. “Like so many parts of my life, my relationship with my mother has been a mix of contradictions and complicated emotions. It’s never been simply black and white; it’s a full spectrum of feelings,” she wrote.
“Our bond is a tangled web of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration, and disappointment,” Mariah continued. “A complicated love forever ties my heart to hers.”
Mariah and her mother maintained a relationship in spite of the difficulties. On ABC’s Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You special in 2010, the pair made an emotional appearance together and sang a duet of “O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus.”
Mariah also honored Patricia in her memoir’s dedication: “And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I believe did the best she could. I will always love you the best I can.”
Mariah’s relationship with her sister Alison was similarly complex. In her memoir, she revealed that, at the time, maintaining distance from both Alison and Morgan was what felt emotionally and physically safest for her.
