Mariah Carey‘s mother, Patricia, and sister, Alison, have died, the 55-year-old singer revealed. In a new statement obtained by PEOPLE on Monday, August 26, Mariah revealed that she lost both family members on the same day.
“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” the Grammy Award winner told the outlet. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”
It’s unclear how Mariah lost both her sister and mother last weekend. However, in her statement, she added that she feels “blessed that [she] was able to spend the last week with [her] mom before she passed.”
“I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time,” Mariah concluded.
Mariah’s late mother was an opera singer and a vocal coach. Patricia raised her daughters, Mariah and Alison, and son Morgan in Huntington, New York. Patricia shared her children with ex-husband Alfred Roy Carey.
Mariah Carey and her mom, Patricia, sing “O Come, All Ye Faithful” during an ABC Christmas special in 2010.
— Mr. Pop (@MrPopOfficial) August 27, 2024
The “Emotions” artist had a complicated relationship with her late mother. Mariah opened up about their tension in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, calling their distant relationship a “prickly rope” of “pride” and “pain.”
“Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment,” Mariah wrote in one excerpt. “A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.”
Elsewhere in the book, Mariah pointed out that it was “emotionally and physically safer for [her] not to have any contact” with Patricia or Morgan for a while.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities,” the “Fantasy” singer added. “It’s never been only black-and-white — it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions.”
However, the mother and daughter seemingly patched up their bond over the years. In 2010, they sang together on stage for ABC’s holiday special.
As for Alison, Mariah claimed in her 2020 memoir that they also had a tattered relationship.
“I do know that what she experienced damaged and derailed her girlhood,” the pop star wrote. “She was fully aware when the family unit unraveled and our parents turned on each other; she absorbed the full pain of a family coming undone. … I was told she brought home good grades, got into good schools, and loved music too.”