Mariah Carey is dealing with some serious grief after experiencing multiple tragedies this weekend.
Source: Stefanie Keenan / Getty
A representative for the legendary singer-songwriter confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday, Aug. 26, that her mother Patricia and sister Alison died on the same day over the weekend.
“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend,” Carey told the outlet in a statement. “Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.”
She continued, “I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed. I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
Patricia and Alison’s causes of death are not known at this time.
Mariah previously spoke on her complicated relationship with her mother in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. Patricia and Mariah’s father, Juilliard-trained opera singer and vocal coach Alfred Roy Carey, got divorced when the star was 3 years old.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities,” she wrote in her memoir. “It’s never been only black-and-white — it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions.”
Carey continued, “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.”
She also dedicated her memoir, in part, to her mother, insisting that despite their differences, Patricia did her best in raising her, her sister Alison, and her brother, Morgan.
“And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could,” she wrote. “I will love you the best I can, always.”
Mariah’s relationship with her sister was also very complicated, writing in the memoir that it was “emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact” with her or Morgan. However, she still maintained a relationship with her mother.
