Mariah Carey‘s mom Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day over the weekend, PEOPLE can confirm.
“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, 55, said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.
“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed,” adds Mariah. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
No other details, including Patricia and Alison’s causes of death, are known at this time.
Patricia, who was previously married to Alfred Roy Carey, was a Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach before the couple welcomed 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 her vocal talents were inherited — was complicated throughout her life.
“My relationship with my mother has been full of paradoxes and conflicting realities, much like many other areas of my existence. “There has always been a wide range of emotions; it’s not just black and white,” she stated in her memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, published in 2020.
Mariah went on in the book, “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.”
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