Mariah Carey is a self-made millionaire who rose to fame for her impeccable vocals.
She and her siblings had a challenging childhood, yet the singer rose through it all due to her hard work.
The famous musician Mariah Carey was always destined for stardom. Born on March 27, 1969, in Huntington, New York, she’s the daughter of a formal vocal coach and opera singer.
Carey was exposed to the world of entertainment and music from a young age. Later in life, she’d look back at the traumatic childhood she had experienced as a young girl through her memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.”
“I wouldn’t have gone here if things hadn’t been done to me,” the pop star clarified. “If I hadn’t been dragged by certain people and treated as an ATM machine with a wig on.”
Carey was the youngest of three children. She had two older siblings, a brother named Morgan and a sister named Alison. Growing up in the Carey household, the young singer was constantly in a state of anxiety, always looking over her shoulder. She shared that her siblings had problems they dealt with, although struggled to rid themselves of.
Carey once described Morgan as violent and claimed her sister Alison was “troubled and traumatized.” While she tried to understand where they were coming from, she realized they never gave her the same courtesy.
When Carey was only 12, her sister forced her to take substances and inflicted her with a third-degree burn. She then tried to “sell [Carey] out to a pimp,” which traumatized the singer for life.
Hoping to turn her life around, Carey moved to New York City after graduating from high school to pursue a career in the music industry. She sent a demo tape to Columbia Records, and Tommy Mottola was more than impressed by the young Carey’s vocal range.
Mottola signed her in 1988, just a year after graduating high school. Their work relationship turned into something more – Mottola married Carey in 1993, three years after she released her debut album, “Mariah Carey.”
More on Carey’s Traumatizing Childhood
Carey’s career offered her a respite from all her family problems with her mother and two siblings. Little did she know, her fame and fortune were some things they were all interested in, too.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Mariah opened up about her siblings and how terribly they treated her all her life. They put her on “the chopping block” for years, selling gossip to magazines and attacking her in front of the press.
Her siblings never considered her as a younger sister. They grew up together, but by the time Mariah was born, they were already grownups on their own paths.
Mariah felt like an outsider in her own family. Her two siblings grew up with a black dad and white mom, while she did not. Her mom raised her, and because of that, her siblings thought she had it better.
Carey felt like an outsider, and she knew her dad felt the same way. On his deathbed, Carey assured him that what she went through was not his fault. “That was an important part for me,” she noted, leaving nothing unsaid to her dying dad.
When it comes to her mom, Mariah felt neglected growing up. The two were never especially close, and Carey confessed that they didn’t manage to improve their relationship as she grew older. Now with children of her own, she makes sure to give them the world.
In recent years, Mariah no longer considers her mom or siblings family. She calls her mom “Patricia” and refers to her siblings as her ex-brother and sister.
This decision came after years of therapy, trying to heal the childhood trauma she experienced. However, before others can think she’s a neglectful daughter, she once said:
“I’ll always take care of her. There’s been a huge role reversal in our relationship since the beginning, since I first started [singing] I’ve been the go-to, that matriarch person, even as the youngest child in the family.”
Despite having a difficult relationship with her mom, she hopes that Patricia can see how she’s turned out to be a good person who tried her best to make things work for their family. However, Carey is the first to admit they’ve gone through so much just to sweep it under the rug.
It’s the same for her siblings, whom she’s been estranged from for years. When Alison was diagnosed with HIV in 2012, she begged for forgiveness.
She revealed she hadn’t spoken to Carey since 1994, when they had a huge argument. In 2016, Morgan spoke ill of Carey after she refused to pay for Alison’s hospital bills. He called her “heartless” for not having the will to help their “dying” sister.
“You’re an evil witch,” he said of Carey after the incident. He believed his famous sister was “self-obsessed” and could not even spare a small portion of her then-450-million-dollar fortune for their family.
Despite the accusations, a source close to Carey said she never abandoned her ailing sister. However, rather than focusing on her medical bills, Carey chose to care for Alison’s children and has been a constant presence in their lives for years.
Things took a turn for the worse after Carey released “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” her memoir. It was supposed to be a way for the singer to finally speak up for herself after years of being in the industry.
However, it was a stepping stone for her siblings to launch lawsuits against her. Alison sued her younger sister, claiming she suffered emotional distress from the allegations against her.
Alison sued Carey for at least $1.25 million. She also defended herself, claiming she suffered trauma and alleged abuse from their mother, Patricia.
Likewise, Morgan also sued Carey over the book, claiming it was “fabricated.” One of the pop star’s claims in the book was that her brother agreed to kill for $30,000 but never went through with the plan.
Morgan denied it and said he was filing a lawsuit. “The so-called ‘memoir’ is laden with lies, distortions, and gross revisionism from beginning to end, and I can prove it,” he said.
Mariah loves her family and always will; she’s made that clear plenty of times. However, while she’s learned to forgive them for the past and present, she doesn’t want to build relationships with them again. The singer wants to keep her peace – something she’s worked hard to gain through the years.
Mariah Carey finds solace in her two children, twins Monroe and Moroccan, whom she shares with Nick Cannon. She is also in a loving, long-term relationship with her boyfriend Bryan Tanaka.
