Mariah Carey sued by sister for $1.25m over 'emotional distress' of memoir

Mariah Carey is being sued by her sister for claims the singer made about their “troubled” relationship in her memoir.

The Hero singer published her tell-all autobiography The Meaning Of Mariah Carey last year, in which she claimed elder sister Alison, 59, “tried to sell me out to a pimp” when she was 12.

Alison has now filed a lawsuit seeking $1.25m (£917,000) in damages for the "emotional distress" she claims Mariah intentionally inflicted by publishing details of her past.

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Alison disputed the singer’s allegations that she gave her Valium, tried to "pimp her out and threw a cup of boiling hot tea on her", and says Mariah “presented no evidence to substantiate" the story.

The court papers state: "[Mariah] also callously dismisses [Alison] as her 'ex' sister. But instead of saying no more about her, [Mariah] 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 [Alison] any opportunity to respond."

Alison’s lawsuit states she has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression and has had to seek therapy due "the horrific abuse" she experienced in her youth.

It goes on to allege Mariah used her "status as a public figure to attack her penniless sister" and create "sensational" headlines about Alison to boost publicity for her book.

In the book, Mariah called Alison “the most brilliant and broken person I have ever known. I may never understand what hurt her so badly that it made her hurt so many others in return, but to me, she was her own most permanently damaged victim.”

Mariah said she tried to help Alison many times, financing treatments and paying for rehabs, but that in return Alison made her the target for which to take out “her enduring pain”. The signer wrote that “through 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.”

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In 2016, Alison – who is HIV-positive – was arrested on a prostitution charge in Saugerties, New York.

Just prior, she used a tabloid as a forum to publicly beg Mariah for money for health expenses following a home invasion attack that left her brain-damaged.

The following year, Alison was sued for millions after allegedly hitting a man with her car and nearly killing him.

In August, Alison filed her own lawsuit against their mother Patricia for alleged sexual abuse. She claims Patricia forced her to perform sex acts on strangers when she was 10.

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