Mariah Carey has opened up on her fractured family relations in a new interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The “Save the Day” star is set to release her memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey“, on 29 September (20), and speaking on Oprah’s Apple TV+ series “The Oprah Conversation“, she revealed some shocking details about her childhood.
“When I was 12 years old, my sister drugged me with valium, offered me a pinky nail full of cocaine, inflicted me with third degree burns and tried to sell me out to a pimp,” Mariah wrote in the book, which Oprah read aloud in the interview.
Mariah explained of her relationship with her sister Alison, “We don’t even really know each other… we didn’t grow up together, but we did. Like, they were on their journeys, by the time I got into the world, they had already been damaged, in my opinion. But again, I wasn’t there.”
“I was dropped into this world and I literally felt like an outsider amongst my own family,” she added. “They just grew up with the experience of living with a Black father and a white mother together as a family and I was for the most part living with my mother, which they saw as easier, but in reality it was not. They have always thought that my life was easy.”
During the chat, Mariah said she refers to her siblings as her ex-brother and ex-sister, and she also calls her mum by her first name, Patricia.
The star’s family drama cropped up again earlier this year, when Alison sued Patricia for allegedly sexually abusing her as a child. She stated in a filing that her mum “allowed and encouraged other male persons whose identities are at present unknown to engage in sexual acts as defined in New York Penal Law, specifically 130.52 (forcible touching), and 130.65 (sexual assault in the first degree), while Plaintiff was approximately 10 years of age.”
As a result of the alleged incidents, Alison – who once worked as a prostitute and is HIV positive – claimed she suffers from both post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and had battled drug abuse.