Mariah Carey is being sued by her sister, Alison A. Carey, following the release of the singer's autobiography, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Mariah's sister, who is eight years her senior, is asking for $1.25 million while citing "emotional distress" for what the singer published about their relationship in her book, according to Variety.
TW: This article contains depictions or discussions of child abuse and may be triggering to some readers.
The deeply contentious sister relationship was detailed in Mariah's book, and now, Alison wants compensation for her "public humiliation."
The Meaning of Mariah lets fans into Mariah's neglected childhood, the outcome of two divorced parents. She was also made fun of for her interracial heritage, and witnessed her brother's rage.
She recalled a painful memory of when her sister "threw boiling hot tea on me… my back was splattered with third-degree burns. I couldn’t recognize it as mine,” she wrote, as per Variety.
The chapter was titled "Dandelion Tea."
She later added: "Alison has burned me in many ways and more times than I can count… The promise of her life was squandered in a tragic series of cheap bargains rather than being redeemed through the difficult, lifelong work of recovery and rebuilding oneself."
"Over the years both my sister and brother have put me on the chopping block, sold lies to any gossip rag or trashy website that would buy or listen," she wrote.
"But 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. Something in me was arrested by all that trauma. That is why I often say, ‘I am eternally twelve.'"
The 58-year-old is asking for a minimum of $1.25 million 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."
The suit says that Mariah "callously dismisses plaintiff as her ‘ex’ sister. But instead of saying no more than that, defendant used her book to humiliate and embarrass plaintiff as stories about the memoir appeared in newspapers around the world, on TV and across the Internet, most of them with headlines repeating defendant’s allegations — all of them published without giving plaintiff any opportunity to respond."
"In stories published several weeks prior to the release of her book, defendant was quoted as saying plaintiff is ‘damaged’ and ‘very broken.'"
"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."
Mariah has yet to reply to the lawsuit.
h/t: Variety
