MARIAH CAREY - 'MY HEART IS BROKEN'

THE SINGER MOURNS HER MOTHER AND SISTER, WHO DIED ON THE SAME DAY

- Jennie Noonan

Mariah Carey has been open about her tumultuous upbringing, and the latest twist in her family saga has left her reeling. “My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” the six-time Grammy-winning singer revealed on August 26. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”

Mariah, 55, was born in Huntington, New York, the youngest of three kids to Alfred, an aeronautical engineer from Harlem, and Patricia, a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach from Illinois. Her parents split when she was 3, and Patricia raised her, along with her brother, Morgan, and sister, Alison. Mariah had a strained relationship with her dad, but they mended fences in the months leading up to his death from bile duct cancer in 2002.

In her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer wrote how, although she credits her mother for passing down her talent and introducing her to music, she felt that her gifts inspired antagonism instead of maternal pride from Patricia as her career took off. “There was a distinct shift: she made me feel like the competition, like a threat.

In place of our previous bond grew a different tie, a rope tethering us through shared biology and social obligation,” Mariah wrote. “Having people you love be jealous of you professionally comes with the territory of success, but when the person is your mother and the jealousy is revealed at such a tender age, it’s particularly painful.”