Mariah Carey has spoken openly about her complicated relationship with her parents over the years.
In 2002, the singer lost her father, Alfred Roy Carey. On Aug. 26, she announced the death of her mother, Patricia Carey, over the weekend.
“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed,” Carey said in the statement shared with TODAY.com. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”
In her 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," the 55-year-old shared many details about the complex dynamic she had with both of her parents.
The couple, who divorced when Mariah Carey was just 3 years old, shared three children together: their daughters Mariah and Alison and a son named Morgan.
Curious to learn more about the singer's late parents? Below, we outline everything she has shared about them.
Patricia Carey
U.S. & World
In August 2024, Mariah Carey announced that her mother Patricia Carey and her sister Alison Carey had both died on the same day "in a tragic turn of events." The singer did not share additional details about their deaths.
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Mariah had a troubled relationship with her mother
In her memoir, Mariah Carey called her "complicated journey" with Patricia Carey a story of "betrayal and beauty," "love and abandonment" and "sacrifice and survival."
“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 wrote.
While reflecting on their difficult dynamic, Mariah Carey shared the following thoughts: “I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together. It has caused me so much pain and confusion."
Patricia was disowned from her mother for marrying a black man
As a white woman, Patricia Carey's marriage to a black man caused tension in her family, as Mariah Carey described in her memoir, and her own mother disowned her.
"This, to my grandmother (and her community) was the worst thing her daughter could do to her and to the family lineage. Talking to a Black man was considered a shame; befriending one, an outrage; carrying on with one, a major scandal, but marrying one? That was an abomination," she wrote.
Patricia was an opera singer
Patricia Carey was an opera singer who sang with the New York City Opera. In her memoir, Mariah Carey questioned why her mother gave up singing after she got married and had three children.
"I could understand her wanting to create a safety net, a new family of her own, and to continue blazing trails, leaving her backward home and family behind. But what I couldn’t understand was her abandoning her promising singing career to do so. From very early on I decided that I didn’t want the same fate; I couldn’t have a man or an unplanned pregnancy take me off my path," she wrote.
After having children, Patricia Carey found work as a voice and music coach.
“Music was something we genuinely connected on, and without pushing or becoming one of those overbearing stage mothers or ‘momagers,’ she instilled in me the power of believing in myself,” Mariah Carey wrote in her book. “Whenever I mused about what I’d do ‘if I make it,’ she would cut me short and say, ‘Don’t say “if I make it,” say “when I make it.” Believe you can do it, and you will do it.’”
In 2010, Patricia and Mariah Carey sang a duet of "O Come All Ye Faithful/Hallelujah Chorus" during Mariah Carey's Christmas TV special.
Alfred Roy Carey
Mariah Carey's father, Alfred Roy Carey, was born in 1929. In her memoir, the singer explained that he enlisted in the military and later worked as an aeronautical engineer.
When Mariah Carey was 3 years old, her parents divorced and she spent most of her time with her mother.
“For most of my early childhood it was just my mother and me. We moved constantly,” she wrote in her memoir.
Mariah Carey didn't have a close relationship with her father while growing up
After her parents' divorce, Mariah Carey at first had weekly visits with her father, but those were soon few and far between.
“My father and I had a good relationship for a minute there, right after the divorce,” she told People in 1993. “Everybody wishes they had the Brady Bunch family, but it’s not reality.”
Over the years, Mariah Carey has spoken out about her experience growing up as mixed race.
“The truth is I will never say I had the same experience as a darker-skinned woman,” she told Vulture in 2020. The singer said she grew up in white neighborhoods and felt "ashamed that there (was) nobody visibly Black there."
Alfred Carey had a contentious relationship with his son
In her memoir, Mariah Carey opened up about her father and brother’s challenging relationship and revealed that it sometimes turned violent.
While describing a time they fought when where the cops had to break things up, she wrote, “This, of course, was not the first vicious fight between my father and brother — for as long as I could remember, their relationship had been a war zone. But it was the first time the troops had been called in. It was also the first time I witnessed the possibility that a member of my family could brutally die in front of my eyes. Or that I could die too. I wasn’t yet four years old."
Mariah Carey released a song for her father after he died in 2002
Alfred Roy Carey died in 2002 from cancer. Following his death, Mariah Carey released a song called "Sunflowers for Alfred Roy."
"Please be at peace father/ I’m at peace with you/ Bitterness isn’t worth cling to/ After all the anguish we’ve all been through," she sang.
The song continued, "Father, thanks for reaching out and lovingly/ Saying that you’ve always been proud of me/ I needed to feel that so desperately/You’re always alive inside of me/ Now you’re shining like/ A sunflower up in the sky/ Way up high."
Mariah Carey has paid tribute to her father on several occasions since his death
In recent years, Mariah Carey has posted several tributes to her late father on social media.
To celebrate Father's Day in 2020, she shared a photo of him along with the following message: "Happy Father’s Day to My Father. Rest in Power 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻Love and Sunflowers for Alfred Roy ❤️."
In 2022, the singer marked her father’s birthday by sharing several photos of a car she restored in his memory.
“Happy Birthday to you my Father Alfred Roy Carey. The car you never got to finish is lovingly restored, complete with your spirit and my children. Sorry I never told you, all I wanted to say🌻👐🏾❤️,” she captioned the post.
During an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" in 2023, the singer said she keeps her father's memory alive in a sweet way during the holiday season: by making his signature clam linguini.
“It’s really special to me because it’s my father’s recipe for my favorite dish that he used to make when I was little,” she said. “I was growing up and it took me so long, but as he was passing away and we were going through that, he wrote down the recipe for me, so it really gets to your heart (when) you just think about it, and it’s like, what an incredible journey this has been.”
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