Mariah Carey reveals in an interview and in her upcoming memoir that her mother Patricia Carey was jealous of her. The 50-year-old singer has been busy in recent weeks promoting her book The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Among the topics Mariah Carey discusses in the book is her relationship with her mother, who was allegedly jealous of her as an up-and-coming musician.
In her new memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer explains the history of their rollercoaster bond, even including her mother in the opening dedication. ″And to Pat, my mother, who, through it all, I do believe actually did the best she could. I will love you the best I can, always,″ it reads.
Carey discusses how she’s always wanted to be her mom’s light and make her proud, saying how much she respected her as a singer and working mother. ″I loved her deeply, and, like most kids, I wanted her to be a safe place for me. Above all, I desperately wanted to believe her,″ she writes.
″But ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival,” Carey writes.
“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,″ Carey continues.
″It has caused me so much pain and confusion. Time has shown me there is no benefit in trying to protect people who never tried to protect me. Time and motherhood have finally given me the courage to honestly face who my mother has been to me.”
In an interview about the book, Carey further alleged that Patricia once told her that Carey “should only hope” to be “half the singer that” she was, as CBS’ Gayle King put it.
“It definitely had an effect on me,” confessed Carey. “I don’t even know that she would even remember that. That one statement did live with me for the rest of my life. You have to be so careful about what you say”. Comments like that one have even affected the way Carey treats her own children, the singer said.
Watch the full interview below:
“For me, it’s very important that the kids always feel safe and that they feel seen and heard; that they know that they are loved unconditionally and that no matter what, I’ll be there for them.”
Carey is mother to nine-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, who she shares with ex-husband Nick Cannon.
She elaborated: “That’s very important to me because growing up and being alone in the house or alone in these dangerous situations was traumatizing.”
Carey said that writing the book was about “emancipating [her] inner child, the little girl that never really felt seen or heard”. She added that she grew up poor and “struggled with race and identity,” leaving her “scared.”
“There was a lot of unrest in my household, if there was a household. And I had difficulty with having come from such a dysfunctional family,” she explained.