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Mariah Carey is asking for privacy after confirming that she lost her mom, Patricia, and her estranged sister Alison, on the same day over the weekend. The 55-year-old singer has been very open about the complicated relationship she had with them both, but she said in a statement to People, that she spent the last week with her mom before she passed.
The shocking news broke on Monday, August 26. Mariah said in a statement to PEOPLE, "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 continued.
Despite their estranged relationship, Mariah said she was able to spend time with her mom before she died. "I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed," the singer added, asking for "everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time."
Mariah’s relationship with her family was rocky, and she talked about them in her 2020 tell-all memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” She referred to her siblings Alison and brother Morgan as her “ex-sister” and “ex-brother.” Both of her estranged siblings sued her, alleging emotional distress and defamation for statements made about them in her book. Morgan is still alive.
There are no other details including their cause of death -but Alison's friend and advocate, David Baker, said it was related to her organ function and that she had been in hospice care," per Times Union. Patricia was 63 when she passed and had a hard life, struggling with homelessness and substance use disorder over the years. In 2015, she was the victim of a home invasion and was hit in the head with a baseball bat, suffering a brain injury and short-term memory loss.
Mariah lost her father, Alfred Roy Carey, on July 4, 2002, from a rare form of cancer. The father-daughter pair mended their relationship before his death, per People.
Mariah's letter to her mother before her passing
In her memoir, Carey wrote a letter to Patricia saying that she would love her the best she could. “And 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,” it reads. Her mother was also a well-known opera singer who she aspired to please, “I loved her deeply, and, like most kids, I wanted her to be a safe place for me. Above all, I desperately wanted to believe her,” she wrote.
“But ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I‘ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together,” Carey continued. “It has caused me so much pain and confusion. Time has shown me there is no benefit in trying to protect people who never tried to protect me. Time and motherhood have finally given me the courage to honestly face who my mother has been to me.”