Mariah Carey’s mom Patricia (left) and her sister Alison both died tragically on the same day over the weekend.
Patricia was 87 years old while Alison was 63.
“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,” the Grammy-winning singer told PEOPLE in an exclusive statement.
No further details were given about Patricia or Alison’s deaths.
“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed,” Mariah said in her statement. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
Mariah had a complicated relationship with both her mother and sister.
“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,” Mariah wrote in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
“Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.”
Mariah also wrote about her strained relationship with her sister. She they both had a rough childhood growing up.
She wrote in her memoir that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with Alison or their brother, Morgan.
“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,” Mariah said to Vulture magazine in August 2020. “I think they’re very broken, and I feel sad for them.”
Mariah’s father Alfred Carey died in July 2002 at age 72.
Alison is survived by her sons Shawn and Michael.
