Mariah Carey has revealed her mother and sister both died on the same day over the weekend. In a heartbreaking statement the singer, 55, announced the deaths of her mom Patricia, 87, and sister Alison, 63. Mariah, 55, told 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. ‘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. There was no further information on the causes of death for Patricia and Alison. Mariah had a famously fraught relationship with her mother and sister over the years – and was estranged from recovering drug addict Alison for three decades before her death.
Mariah Carey has revealed her mother and sister both died on the same day – pictured with mom Patricia in 2015
Patricia was married to Mariah’s father, Alfred Roy Carey, until the future superstar was age three. Mariah’s father died at age 72 in 2002. As well as substance abuse, Alison endured homelessness throughout her life. She was also HIV positive. In 2016 Alison made an impassioned plea to her famous sibling with DailyMail.com, begging her to mend the rift between them and help save her life, saying: ‘Mariah I love you, I desperately need your help.’
She was in dire need of financial support as she battled back to health following a devastating home invasion attack that left her brain damaged and seriously ill. She had been in and out of the hospital. In addition to Mariah and Alison, Patricia and Roy also had son Morgan, now 60. Julliard-educated Patricia was an opera singer and vocal coach.
Mariah opened up about complicated relationships with her mom and sister in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey. ‘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 explained.
In a heartbreaking statement the singer announced her mom Patricia and sister Alison, 63, (pictured 2016) had passed over the weekend
She said their relationship was a ‘prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration, and disappointment.’ The book was still dedicated to Patricia: ‘And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could,’ the singer penned in the dedication. ‘I will love you the best I can, always.’
In 2020 Mariah alleged Alison who she described as ‘troubled and traumatized … tried to sell [her] out to a pimp.’ In a passage in her book Carey said of her sister Allison: ‘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.’
Winfrey, on The Oprah Conversation, asked the singer about why she feels her siblings who she described as ‘extremely violent’ – treated her as such to which the singer insisted they were ‘damaged’ Mariah said of the trio: ‘We don’t even really know each other, and that’s the thing. We didn’t grow up together, but we did.
‘Like, they were on their journeys, by the time I got into the world, they had already been damaged, in my opinion. But again, I wasn’t there. I was dropped into this world and I literally felt like an outsider amongst my own family.’ The Grammy-winning singer wrote that both siblings have been ‘attacking’ her verbally for years, amid their very public feud.
Carey with daughter Monroe and her mother Patricia
She told Oprah: ‘[My siblings] just grew up with the experience of living with a Black father and a white mother together, as a family, and I was, for the most part, living with my mother, which they saw as easier, but in reality it was not.’ She added that her siblings ‘have always thought that [her] life was easy’ and ‘also always looked for … a get rich quick scheme.’
Mariah also famously claimed her mother called the police on her before her hospitalization in 2001. The singer was hospitalized in July of 2001 as her reps said she was dealing with ‘extreme exhaustion.’ The Grammy-winning singer told Oprah that her mother Patricia Carey, 83, contacted the authorities amid a family fight.
She said she was going through an ’emotional crisis’ amid her promotional tour for her film Glitter, and was staying with her mother at the time. ‘There was a code switching that happened and a power shift that was immediate,’ the Hero singer said. ‘It was immediate and she was in charge and instead of saying, “I’m taking care of my daughter, she’s tired, somebody called the cops by mistake,” or whatever, it was like, “Oh no, because you defied me, this is what’s going to happen.”‘
The I Don’t Wanna Cry singer said she felt a strange sense of relief when police arrived and she got into their vehicle. ‘In the backseat of the police car, it’s a vivid memory I’ll never forget,’ she said. ‘I have never spoken about it, but at that moment, that seemed like a better alternative than where I was.’
Mariah had a famously fraught relationship with her mom – who inspired her singing
Carey told Oprah that she didn’t feel like she was in a ‘breakdown mode’ at the time, but rather overworked with her project Glitter, which was considered a critical and commercial failing amid Carey’s vaunted career. ‘If they had given me even two days,’ she said, ‘I would have gotten up, gone to the video shoot and made the video … as we’ve seen in this entertainment industry, it happens. ‘People push artists to the edge and then they wonder why people are gone too soon.’
Mariah and Alison’s brother Morgan – now 60 – told Daily Mail Online from his home in Italy in 2016, that following the attack in April, Alison spent a short time at a mental hospital in New York after a bizarre episode in the street near her home.
‘Because Mariah has not found it in her heart to help Alison get the care she requires there are times when Alison forgets or is unable to take her medication and this sometimes precipitates problematic behavior.’
He said: ‘Alison was institutionalized for observation after being found wandering in the street barefoot and partially dressed, causing the police to be concerned. ‘Her behavior was caused as a result of damage done in the attack and her having missed the medications she was taking.’ Morgan says that due to the severe brain damage, Alison suffers from memory loss, seizures, and occasional periods loss of consciousness. ‘Alison’s brain scans show severe damage,’ he explains.
Alison was released from the mental health facility after a few weeks. Morgan added: ‘The worst is yet to come and Mariah has it in her power to at least ensure a soft landing and avoid a life time of regret about missing this opportunity to forgive and help her only sister.’ ‘I would be hopeful, although I am not encouraged by the past, that Mariah would step up because she’s in a position to step up. ‘We’re talking about small change to these people, her fiancé is a billionaire.
‘The least they could do is put Alison in a good hospital and make sure she gets the care she needs. ‘Mariah is the one person in the family who could actually make a real meaningful difference to Alison’s life.’ Morgan says he flew from Maui last August to be at his sister’s bedside when she took a turn for the worse, but Alison’s mother and sister didn’t show. It was then that he took a video of her in the hospital.
‘It was painful for her to speak, you could hear the raspiness in her breath, she had had a tube down her throat for so long. ‘She looked like she had been beaten down by this whole experience, her eyes were foggy, her skin jaundice and she had very little motor control. ‘Every effort, every movement was very labored and painful and difficult – but she was very much alive.
‘I wanted to be able to prove that she was lucid, that she understood who she was, where she was, what was going on around her. ‘I wanted people to see that she was a human being and that someone else shouldn’t have the decision to decide whether she live or die.’
Despite coming close to death Alison pulled through and made a miraculous recovery. Morgan was successful in having the “do not resuscitate order” dropped and claims he is now his sister’s medical proxy.
In a third video taken on September 23, 2015 and viewed by Daily Mail Online, Alison is lucid as she is interviewed by a member of the staff of a New York hospital. She clearing states her name, date of birth and names Morgan Carey as her health care proxy. She also confirms that she wants the DNR be removed from her file.
Alison recently left hospital and is being cared for by a Patient Advocate and staying at the advocate’s home in New York. Morgan said: ‘She is alive and is out of hospital, which is very positive. ‘But she is being scheduled for surgery on her spine and she has faces more surgery on her brain, which is going to be tough. ‘She’s also going to drug addiction meetings and visiting with her sponsor which is good.
Morgan said in the past 12 months, following the alleged attack by a home invader at her New York home in April last year, Alison had several brain surgeries, an operation on her spleen, a hip replacement and periods of physical rehabilitation.
In 2016 Mariah’s brother Morgan says he hasn’t spoke to his sister ‘properly’ for two decades
‘She was a train wreck,’ Morgan recalls. ‘And right now she’s on several different medications to keep her seizures under control, she’s fallen down several times and had bad injuries to her head because of her seizures. ‘She also taking her HIV meds and anti-inflammatory meds and whatever else she’s on. So yes she’s on the mend, but still needs a lot of help.’
The biggest problem, Morgan says, is the mounting medical bills. He says he’d love to be able to pay them but he can’t afford to cover them all. ‘It’s been a constant battle, the insurance would run out, the Medicare would run out, we are always fighting that fight to just get these bills paid by Medicare,’ he said.
Alison has four children but while they have tried to help Morgan says they have always had a difficult relationship with their mother due to her drug addiction and prostitution past. Alison revealed she worked as a prostitute in New York as a young woman to clothe and feed her family before Mariah found fame.
He said: ‘It has to be real hard growing up knowing your mother is an addict and a prostitute, I can’t even imagine putting myself in their shoes. ‘But Alison did the best she could for her kids, was her best great, no, but she did the best she could.’
Morgan says Alison inherited $1.6million from her father Alfred Carey, when he died in 2002, and she set up trust funds for her children. The rest of the money she has squandered on her drug addiction. He says he understands that Mariah – who hasn’t spoken to her sister properly since they had a huge argument in 1994 – may not want to hand money to a drug addict through fear it will simply enable her.
But he adds: ‘Look me personally I’m not going to hand my sister Alison a penny directly, but if I can give money to the person giving her care, I’m going to do it. ‘Is there a way of setting up a medical fund? You don’t put cash in an addict’s hands but you can make sure that their basic medical care is met, it’s that simple.
‘Mariah can easily manage this and still keep her distance. ‘If she wants to hold her grudge, then let her hold her grudge.’ He added: ‘We just want to make Alison as comfortable as possible and to enjoy some kind of quality of life, I’m trying to do my best to help her.’
