When Mariah Carey shared the heartbreaking news that her mother Patricia, 87, and troubled sister Alison, 63, passed away on the same day, it was the end of a particularly painful era for the singer, who can finally lay a decades long feud with her sibling to rest.
The great sadness is that they never managed to repair their relationship, who said she felt ‘blessed’ to have spent the last week with her mother before she passed away.
She admitted that she is going through ‘an impossible time’, but it’s unlikely that the legendary singer, 55, will turn to her older brother Morgan – her one remaining sibling – for support amid her complicated grief.
In recent years, the star has opened up about her complex family relationships, admitting that she cut off contact with both her her siblings because it was ’emotionally and physically safer’ for her.
Elsewhere, she described her dynamic with her mother as a ‘prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration, and disappointment’ in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
In the book, Mariah also claimed that her childhood was marred by violence at the hands of her older brother, 64, against a backdrop of the harsh racism her mixed race family endured in a predominantly white neighbourhood.
Mariah Carey shared heartbreaking news this week, when she revealed that her mother Patricia and sister Alison passed away on the same day. Mariah pictured with her mother and daughter in 2015
Patricia was a singer while Alfred was an aeronautical engineer. At one point, their car was set on fire and their dog was poisoned. Patricia’s family had also disowned her for marrying a black man. These tensions piled onto her parents, and they divorced when Mariah was three. Mariah pictured with her mother
Mariah had a famously fraught relationship with her mother – who had inspired her singing career
Mariah has in her book candidly revealed that she had from a young age felt distant from the rest of her family – especially her sister Alison and brother Morgan. Pictured with her sister, left, who was her bridesmaid at her first wedding
While the pop star and her mother were able to repair their rocky relationship – with Mariah even dedicating part of her autobiography to Patricia, 87 – her relationship with her siblings descended further into bitterness over the decades.
Alison, who was 63 when she passed away, was HIV positive and had spent years suffering with health issues and battling drug addiction and homelessness.
Both she and Mariah’s older brother Morgan, 64, previously took legal action against their little sister for what they claimed were ‘cruel and outrageous allegations’ made in her book.
Now, with Alison gone, there is no chance of Mariah ever rebuilding the family she said made her feel like an outsider.
FEELING LIKE ‘AN INTRUDER’ IN THE FAMILY
In her book, Mariah revealed that from a young age she felt distant from the rest of her family – especially her sister Alison and brother Morgan.
‘They had an approach to the world that made little room for whimsy and fantasy, which was my natural tendency,’ she said. ‘We shared common blood, yet I felt like a stranger among them all, an intruder in my own family.’
She explained that her family endured horrific racism growing up, because her mother Patricia was white while her father, Alfred, was of African-American and Afro-Venezuelan heritage, and they lived in predominantly white neighbourhoods.
Mariah’s early memories are also tinged with violent outbursts from her brother (pictured centre, with his wife, left, and Mariah, right), who himself was shouldering the trauma of being bullied for having a disability as well as racist abuse
Patricia was a singer while Alfred was an aeronautical engineer.
At one point, their car was set on fire and their dog was poisoned. Patricia’s family had also disowned her for marrying a black man. These tensions took a toll on her parents’ relationship, and they divorced when Mariah was three.
Mariah’s father had grappled with his own struggles. He’s escaped a ‘violent, oppressive environment’ in his own family home for the structure and order of the military.
He was jailed after a white woman at the base said she was raped by a black man. He was eventually released and told that the real culprit was found, but was shaken by the experience.
While he would see Mariah once a week when she was a child, it is understood they drifted apart after she started seriously pursuing her career as a singer, and they only saw each other sporadically after that.
Mariah’s early memories are also tinged with violent outbursts from her brother, who himself was shouldering the trauma of being bullied for having a disability as well as racist abuse.
She recalled one instance in which he, as a teenager, pushed their mother into a wall so hard that she had slumped over, and another where ‘twelve cops’ had to pull him and her father apart. Mariah’s father died aged 72 in 2002.
MUSICAL BOND WITH HER MOTHER
Mariah had always had a special bond with her Julliard-trained opera singer mother.
The pop star even dedicated part of her memoir to Patricia, saying her mother did the best she could and that she’d always love her.
In 2009, Mariah told CBS Sunday Morning that Patricia was the first person to inspire her.
Mariah Carey with her mother Patricia and daughter Monroe. She said their bond was marred by ‘jealousy’ but they had resolved their issues at the time of Patricia’s death
Mariah had always had a special bond with her Julliard-trained opera singer mother. The pop star even dedicated part of her memoir to Patricia (pictured in 2019), saying her mom did the best she could and that she’d always love her
After her and Alfred’s split, Mariah said she ‘tried her hardest to accept all her mother’s unfortunate choices in men’. Pictured with her mother and daughter in 2015
‘My mother was definitely the first person who inspired me. She was an opera singer. She still sings,’ she noted at the time.
When asked by journalist Troy Roberts how she became aware of her musical talent, she answered: ‘Well, my mother tells a story. She said that she was doing Rigoletto, and she kept rehearsing one part over and over and over.
‘And then, she messed up. And I said, “No, it goes like this”, and sang it to her.’
In her memoir, Mariah described her relationship with her mother as one of ‘betrayal and beauty’ as well as ‘love and abandonment’.
However, she touched on Patricia’s own upbringing in the book, stating that ‘to a certain extent’ she understands why her mother became ‘who she is’.
She was born in 1937, in County Cork, Ireland, but grew up in Springfield, Illinois, where racism was rife.
However, Patricia actively rebelled against the injustice she frequently saw, and was active in the civil rights movement.
And when she married Alfred, a black man, it was – to Mariah’s grandmother – ‘the worst thing her daughter could do to her and to the family lineage’.
Patricia was able to build a life for herself in New York – armed with a scholarship to Julliard – and bonded with Mariah over their shared love of music, frequently singing songs together on the piano.
Patricia’s own father was too a musician, and had moved the family over to America for better opportunities as an artist. However, he died when she was young.
After her and Alfred’s split, Mariah said she ‘tried her hardest to accept all her mother’s unfortunate choices in men’.
The singer said she had also dealt with her mother’s jealousy amid her thriving career – which in turn was particularly painful.
In one instance, while Mariah jokingly teased her mother’s operatic rendition of an R&B track, she had snapped: ‘You should only hope that one day you become half the singer I am.’
Patricia actively rebelled against the injustice she frequently saw, and was active in the civil rights movement. And when she married Alfred (pictured), a black man, it was – to Mariah’s grandmother – ‘the worst thing her daughter could do to her and to the family lineage’
Mariah, left, pictured as a child with her father, Roy, and a cousin. They lost contact before his death in 2002
‘Though a subtle, brief moment, this was the first big blow in a long line of times when people close to me would try to put me down,’ she wrote in her memoir.
‘But she, above all, was the most devastating, because she was the most essential. She was my mother.’
Mariah also famously claimed her mother called the police on her before her hospitalisation in 2001 – as reps at the time said she was dealing with ‘extreme exhaustion’.
The Grammy-winning singer told Oprah that Patricia 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.
Alfred Roy Carey passed away from cancer in 2002 at the age of 72
‘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.”‘
Mariah 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.’
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.’
‘NO WONDER THEY HATED ME’: RIFT WITH SIBLINGS BEGAN IN CHILDHOOD
While Mariah’s childhood was rocky, she admits that her relationship with her father was dramatically different that the one he had with her older siblings.
In her memoir, she suggested that Alfred was a lot stricter – and perhaps even physically disciplinary – with Morgan and Alison, which she didn’t have to endure.
‘No wonder they hated me,’ she wrote.
Mariah did not speak to her sister properly after they had a huge argument in 1994 following her 1993 wedding the record producer Tommy Mottola
In her memoir, she suggested that Alfred was a lot stricter – and perhaps even physically disciplinary – with Morgan and Alison, which she didn’t have to endure. Mariah pictured with her brother Morgan
After becoming pregnant at fifteen years old, Alison moved to the Philippines, where her ‘military man’ beau was stationed.
But after a few years there, she – aged 20 – returned to Long Island, which had ‘hardened’ her vibrant sister into ‘a strange kind of absence’.
Mariah explained that ‘something, or many things must have happened to her to lead her to barter her body for money and drugs, as she went on to do for years’.
After extensive therapy, Mariah decided to cease contact with both Alison and Morgan.
‘For my sanity and peace of mind, my therapist encouraged me to literally rename and reframe my family… Morgan my ex-brother and Alison my ex-sister… I had to stop expecting them to one day miraculously become the… big brother and big sister I fantasized about,’ she wrote on her memoir.
After extensive therapy, Mariah decided to cease contact with both Alison and Morgan. Mariah in 1998
Mariah added: ‘I had to stop making myself available to be hurt by them. It has been helpful. I have no doubt it is emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact with my ex-brother and ex-sister.’
In the book, Mariah claimed that Alison tried to get her to use drugs and had ‘inflicted [her] with third-degree burns’ when she was a pre-teen, impacting her lifelong development.
‘When I was 12 years old, my sister drugged me with Valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine… and tried to sell me out to a pimp,’ Mariah said. ‘Something in me was arrested by all that trauma. That is why I often say, “I’m eternally 12.” I am still struggling through that time.’
In a September 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Mariah described Alison as ‘troubled and traumatized’ amid their upbringing.
The Someday singer recalled: ‘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.’
According to a 2015 New York Post report, Alison was mother to four children, pregnant for the first time at the age of 15, and having another child in 1988. She had two more children by 2002, the paper said.
LEGAL ACTION AGAINST MARIAH
Both Morgan and Alison sued Mariah after the singer’s candid memoir was released in 2020.
In the wake of its release, Alison filed a $1.25 million lawsuit against the Grammy-winning artist in 2021.
Alison in legal docs denied ‘outrageous claims’ made in a chapter titled Dandelion Tea, in which Mariah alleged that a 20-year-old Alison had sought to sell her to a pimp at the age of 12, noting that the singer provided no evidence to back up the shocking claim, ET reported.
Both Morgan and Alison sued Mariah after the singer’s candid memoir was released in 2020. Alison pictured in 2016
Alison said in legal docs that Mariah ‘used her status as a public figure to attack her penniless sister, generating sensational headlines describing her lurid claims to promote sales of her book’.
Alison said said that the ‘cruel and outrageous allegations’ made by Mariah in the book left her ‘devastated’ amid a number of other unfortunate circumstances in her life.
Alison said she had was ‘already struggling with the unspeakable trauma of her childhood and having her own children abandon her’ prior to the publication of the memoir.
Alison said she had ‘become severely depressed and uncharacteristically tearful since the publication of [Mariah’s] book and now struggles, after a long time clean, with alcohol abuse’.
She said that she wanted the $1.25 million sum as ‘compensation for the infliction of immense emotional distress caused by defendant’s heartless, vicious, vindictive, despicable and totally unnecessary public humiliation’.
That same year, Morgan filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court in March, alleging several passages about him in the book are, ‘false and defamatory, personally invasive and painful’.
Mariah however shot back by filing a motion for the lawsuit to be dismissed, according to Page Six, claiming the passages were not meant to defame, but rather to inspire people to overcome their adversity.
The filing alleges that the lawsuit should be tossed out because the book’s message of triumphing over adversity is a matter of ‘public interest.’
This means that Morgan would have to meet a higher legal standing to prove defamation, with the singer’s filing claiming his lawsuit doesn’t meet that standard.
The filing also said that that the story is of public interest due to her level of fame, and that she wants to use these stories to encourage those from difficult upbringings.
‘The story of Ms. Carey’s rise from a dysfunctional and sometimes violent family environment has significant public value, particularly to any young person who may find her/himself stuck in similarly harsh and dispiriting circumstances and who can benefit from the inspiration to employ their talents in pursuit of their dreams,’ reads an excerpt of the filing from Carey’s lawyers.
Morgan, who now lives in Maui, Hawaii and has built a career as a celebrity fitness trainer, claimed he lost out on a film project because of the book.
The lawsuit added that Morgan, ‘brings this action more in sorrow and disappointment in his sister’s betrayals and malicious falsehoods than in anger at them,’ adding the passages about him are, ‘mere gossip and of prurient interest.’
Morgan also claims the book paints him out to be violent towards Mariah and Morgan’s father, when in fact it was the father who was violent.
‘The violence was entirely one-sided, with the plaintiff being the recipient of his misplaced rage,’ the lawsuit alleges.
Morgan said he planned to sue during a November 2020 conversation with The Sun, calling his sister’s recollections ‘delusional.’
In the book she also claims Morgan was propositioned to kill someone for $30,000, but never went through with the job.
‘It’s heartbreaking to witness my little sister’s descent into this hatefully delusional revisionist rant because it is so reminiscent of her unhinged behavior during her first breakdown,’ he said.
‘The so-called “memoir” is laden with lies, distortions and gross revisionism from beginning to end, and I can prove it.
‘When I reveal the truth, the facts and supporting evidence, it will be a very harsh pill for she and her publishers to swallow and rest assured I will be filing a lawsuit.’
Mariah was similarly chilly while talking about her relationship with her siblings during a profile with Vulture in August 2020, saying: ‘Here’s the thing: They have been ruthlessly just heartless in terms of dealing with me as a human being for most of my life. I never would have spoken about my family at all had they not done it first.
‘I have forgiveness in my heart, and so I forgive them, but I am not trying to invite anybody to come hang out over here. I think they’re very broken, and I feel sad for them.’
Mariah says it ‘took a lifetime’ for her to be brave enough to write the book, which was ‘incredibly hard’ for her.
In the foreword, she writes: ‘This book is composed of my memories and my mishaps, my struggles, my survival… I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice.’
ALISON’S HEALTH BATTLES
Throughout the decades, Alison has struggled with health issues and drug addicition problems.
She had been living with HIV since 1990, as the New York Post reported in 2005 that she had been HIV-positive ‘for at least 15 years’.
Alison said in her 2021 suit that she had been living with a brain injury following a violent home invasion she was the victim of in 2015.
She said that the incident impacted her vision and short-term memory. In a video that circulated last autumn, Alison said that she had lost all of her teeth and was unable to afford any dental restoration treatments.
‘I’m Alison Carey, unfortunately I’m living without teeth,’ Alison said in November, The Mirror reported. ‘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.’
In a video that circulated last autumn, Alison said that she had lost all of her teeth and was unable to afford any dental restoration treatments
Alison had been arrested multiple times in connection with accusations of prostitution over the years.
Alison had engaged in prostitution ‘off and on since the early 1980s’ in an effort ‘to fund her longtime drug addiction,’ sources said in the 2005 report from the Post.
Alison had been arrested twice in a 10-week span, including a June 13, 2015 incident in which she was taken into custody in Suffolk County, New York after soliciting an undercover cop at a boat marina, according to the Post.
Alison was arrested again in August of 2016 in upstate New York in connection with prostitution, authorities told The Daily Freeman.
In the incident, police told the paper that Alison had been seeking to solicit money in exchange for sexual acts from an undercover police officer during a probe at a hotel.
Alison was described by law enforcement as a ‘transient’ who had been advertising sexual acts online, and told arresting officers that she was Mariah Carey’s sister.
In one of her online ads, The Daily Freeman reported, Alison referenced lyrics from Mariah’s 1995 single Fantasy.
The ad read, ‘Im a pretty lady looking for guys who are looking to have some fun and get into a world of pleasure that other woman just cant provide two you, woman with the ability to make the earth move for you and to get you to see stars. Oh yea with me its, “ITS SUCH A SWEET, SWEET FANTASY BABY, WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES I COME AND TAKE YOU ON AND ON.”‘
ATTEMPTS AT RECONCILIATION
A source told the Post in June 2005 that Alison had ‘been in rehab at least 10 times – many times financed by Mariah.’
While ‘Mariah isn’t one to give up on people,’ she was ‘having to learn that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped,’ an insider said in the report.
One source told the outlet that ‘Mariah, especially, wanted a reconciliation’ with her older sister in 2002 after their father’s death.
‘She thought it was important to try and have something good come out of an awful situation,’ an insider told the outlet.
Alison was arrested in Saugerties, New York, for alleged prostitution in 2016. Following their father’s passing, Alison inherited $1 million, but was not financially prudent with the money
Following their father’s passing, Alison inherited $1 million, but was not financially prudent with the money.
‘When she got the money, she would spend a week and a half living at the St. Regis, racking up $15,000 tabs,’ a family insider told the outlet. ‘It was very painful for the entire family to see her burn through what Alfred had worked his whole life for. He had wanted Alison to be taken care of.’
Alison returned to prostitution ‘around the time the money ran out,’ a source told the outlet.
In March of 2016, Alison filmed a video published by Dailymail.com in which she appealed to her famed sibling for financial assistance after the 2015 attack that left her injured.
She said, ‘Mariah, I love you. I desperately need your help. Please don’t abandon me like this.’
Morgan 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 clearly 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.
Morgan said at the time: ‘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 those past 12 months, following the alleged attack by a home invader at her New York home, Alison had several brain surgeries, an operation on her spleen, a hip replacement and periods of physical rehabilitation.
‘She was a train wreck,’ Morgan recalled. ‘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 said, was 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.’
GRIEVING LOVED ONES
In a heartbreaking statement this week the singer 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 Patricia and Alison’s deaths.
Alison’s close friend and carer Dave Baker said she had been struggling with her health in recent weeks.
They told The US Sun: ‘Alison was on home hospice care for the last three weeks of her life.’
He added that she had a problem with internal organs before continuing: ‘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.’