“I appreciate the love and support of everyone, and I ask for privacy during this impossible time,” says Mariah
Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison have both passed away on the same day over the weekend, PEOPLE has confirmed.
“It is with a broken heart that I share the loss of my mother this past weekend. Tragically, my sister also lost her life on the same day,” the Grammy-winning singer, 55, said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.
“I feel fortunate that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she departed,” Mariah added. “I appreciate the love and support of everyone, and I ask for privacy during this impossible time.”
The causes of death for Patricia and Alison are not yet known.
Patricia, who was previously married to Alfred Roy Carey, was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach before the couple had Alison, Mariah and son Morgan. The parents later divorced when the “Hero” singer was 3 years old.
Mariah’s relationship with her mother, from whom she inherited her vocal talents, was complex throughout her life.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It has never been simple – it has been a whole spectrum of emotions,” she wrote in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
“Our relationship is a tangled rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love binds my heart to my mother’s,” Mariah continued in the book.
Despite the ups and downs, Mariah maintained a connection with her mother. In 2010, they reunited for ABC’s Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You special and performed a festive duet of “O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus.”
Mariah also dedicated a part of her memoir to Patricia. “And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always.”
Mariah’s relationship with Alison was also complex. The star wrote in the memoir that it was, at least at the time, “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with her or Morgan.