Mariah Carey Sued by Sister Alison Carey for Emotional Distress

Pop music icon Mariah Carey is being sued by her older sister, Alison Carey, for emotional distress, stemming from some things Carey wrote in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. In the book, Carey shared a story in which she claims that when she was 12 years old Alison, who was 20 at the time, attempted to sell her into prostitution. Carey also claims that Alison also once tossed a cup of boiling-hot tea on her, which she says caused third-degree burns. Alison, however, refutes the allegations — which she says Carey cannot prove are true — and is suing her younger sister for more than $1 million over “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” per a report from ET.

In the lawsuit, in which Alison is representing herself, the elder Carey says that her sibling made the “outrageous claims” while knowing about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of their mother, Patricia Carey. Alison states that, as an adolescent, Patricia forced her to attend “terrifying middle of the night satanic worship meetings that included ritual sacrifices and sexual activity.” She also stated that she has short-term memory and permanent damage in one eye, due to a traumatic brain injury she suffered during a 2015 home invasion attack.

“Defendant used her status as a public figure to attack her penniless sister, generating sensational headlines describing her lurid claims to promote sales of her book,” the court documents state. “Defendant’s cruel and outrageous allegations have devastated the plaintiff. Already struggling with the unspeakable trauma of her childhood and having her own children abandon her, she has become severely depressed and uncharacteristically tearful since the publication of defendant’s book and now struggles, after a long time clean, with alcohol abuse.”

The lawsuit documents go on to state, “Plaintiff will demand an amount no less than $1.25 million compensation for the infliction of immense emotional distress caused by defendant’s heartless, vicious, vindictive, despicable and totally unnecessary public humiliation of defendant’s already profoundly damaged older sister.” Notably, Carey’s accusations against her older sister don’t stop at the aforementioned claims. In the book she also wrote that when she “was 12 years old” Alison drugged her “with Valium,” offered her “a pinky nail full of cocaine.”

“Something in me was arrested by all that trauma,” she continued. “That is why I often say, ‘I’m eternally 12.’ I am still struggling through that time.” At this time it is unclear if Carey or her representatives have issued a statement on the lawsuit.