Mariah Carey has had a “rough couple of weeks” since the deaths of her mother and sister.
The 55-year-old singer announced last month that her mom Patricia and sibling Alison had passed away on the same day. The “Fantasy” hitmaker has now spoken out for the first time since the double loss to thank fans for their supportive messages.
Carey shared a video on Instagram of her rehearsing her 2005 song “It’s Like That” ahead of her upcoming concerts in China and Brazil.
“We’ll see you soon, China,” she said in the video.
“Back at work. It’s been a couple of rough weeks, but I appreciate everyone’s love and support so much, and I can’t wait to see my fans in China + Brazil. Love you! [three heart emojis],” she wrote in the caption.
The “Hero” singer previously said she was “heartbroken” following the death of her 87-year-old mother and admitted Alison’s death had made the situation even more “tragic.”
“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. 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,” she told People magazine.
Patricia — who divorced the late Alfred Roy Carey in 1973 — was an opera singer and vocal coach before giving birth to her first child, while Alison endured some personal struggles, including homelessness throughout her life, and has been estranged from her superstar sibling for a number of years.
Alison had been in hospice care prior to her death and had been hoping to reconcile with her sister before her death.
“I know it was her dying wish if she could’ve at least had a conversation with Mariah …,” her friend David Baker told DailyMail.com.
Meanwhile, Carey has previously opened up about the complicated relationship she had with her mother and described it all as a “rainbow of emotions” in her memoir.
“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It’s never been only black and white — it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions. 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 in her 2020 book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
