The following article contains references to domestic violence and drug use.
“I have used my songs and voice to inspire others and to emancipate my adult self.”
but what about those other parts of Carey’s life?
There was a troubled childhood, one that saw her neglected by her parents and abused by a sibling.
There was her marriage to Tommy Mottola, who exercised control over both her career and her personal life.
Despite all she’s been through, she keeps singing.
In the epilogue of her memoir, Carey shared some wisdom.
Unfortunately, though, after her parents divorced, Mariah’s relationship with Patricia became strained.
Furthermore, and perhaps most damagingly, Patricia seemed jealous of the young Mariah’s budding talent.
That made Mariah very self-conscious about her own talent, and her mother’s words never really left her.
The two would fall out and make up many times over the ensuing decades.
Often, when Carey and her brother were with their father, things got violent.
They would become fully estranged in adulthood, and Carey considered him absent.
“I was determined to rise above my conditions,” she wrote in her memoir.
“I was going to rise above it all even if that included my father.”
Her brother frequently fought with her father, meaning their household was often filled with violence.
Sometimes, the police were called to their home, frightening the young Mariah even more.
Alison, too, made the future singer feel unsafe all throughout her childhood.
“I am still struggling through that time.”
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Visit theRape, Abuse & Incest National internet websiteor contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
In “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” she described those early experiences in a characteristically poetic fashion.
Some kids refused to play with her because of her identity, and others weren’t allowed to.
She handed out ice cream in an oversized t-shirt, going on about rainbows and swimming.
The bombed stunt mushroomed into a big, nasty, never-ending story."
Soon, Carey was leaving concerning voicemails for her fans online.
Later that month, her publicist toldMTVthat she’d been hospitalized for exhaustion.
Carey recovered, but it would be a long time before her public image did, too.
Carey described the suffocating marriage onMeghan Markle’s Spotify podcast, “Archetypes.”
“In the beginning of our time together I was walking on eggshells.
Then it became a bed of nails, and then a minefield,” she wrote.
“I never knew when or what would make him blow, and the anxiety was relentless.”
As the marriage fell apart, Carey suspected that Mottola sabotaged her career.
Eventually,an affair with Derek Jeterhelped break the hold that Mottola had over his wife.
The box office wasn’t much better.
The movie grossed about $4.3 million against a $22 million budget, according toBoxOfficeMojo.
Yes, that’s right: The “Glitter” soundtrack was released on September 11, 2001.
That was me on that warm and cloudy day in LA."
At the end, all of those old resentments fell away.
“We both needed things we didn’t know how to give.
“Bitterness isn’t worth clinging to / After all the anguish we’ve all been through.”
“It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania.
Eventually I would just hit a wall.”
Carey toldPeoplethat, for a long time after her diagnosis, she refused to believe it was real.
As a result, her decision to come forward almost two decades later wasn’t an easy one.
“Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me.
Her book, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” however, changed all of that.
Alison Carey, perhaps understandably, was quite upset with the book.
Several months later, Morgan Carey filed his own lawsuit, accusing his sister of defamation.
Carey hit back at that one in court, claiming that her intent was merely to inspire others.
Thankfully,Carey was able to spend time with her motherbefore the end.
Sadly, the singer and her sister never patched things up.
“May they rest in peace!”
one Swedish fan account wrote onX, formerly Twitter.
“Sending love to Mariah & family in this difficult time.”
