Mariah Carey says she recently lost not just one, but two family members.
The “We Belong Together” and “Fantasy” pop diva said in a statement shared with The Times on Monday, “My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend.” She added, “in a tragic turn of events,” her older sister “lost her life on the same day.”
She did not share additional details, including when and where the women died or their causes of death.
The five-time Grammy winner, 55, said she felt “blessed” that she was “able to spend the last week” with her mother, Patricia Carey. Patricia, a former opera singer, and Alfred Roy Carey welcomed the singer on March 27, 1969. The spouses divorced when Mariah was 3.
In her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” the singer detailed her complicated relationship with her mother. The hitmaker wrote at the time, “Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment.”
The singer also wrote about her relationship with her sister, whom she accused of drugging her with Valium, offering her cocaine and cigarettes and trying “to sell me out to a pimp.” She said she went to therapy, which helped her “rename and reframe my family.”
“My mother became Pat to me, Morgan my ex-brother and Alison my ex-sister,” she wrote, according to People. “I had to stop expecting them to one day miraculously become the mommy, big brother and big sister I fantasized about.″
On Monday, Mariah said she was grateful for “everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”