Mariah Carey’s brother, Morgan Carey, is suing her for defamation and “the intentional infliction of emotional distress” based on the content of her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Throughout the book, which hit shelves last September, the pop superstar describes her older brother as a physically abusive person with substance issues, and accuses him of committing various heinous acts throughout her lifetime. In one anecdote, she describes a violent fight he got into with their father that Mariah claims came close to one of them dying. In another passage, she alleges that Morgan once accepted payment from a woman who hired him to kill her husband.
In the terms of his lawsuit, Morgan furiously condemns these “false and defamatory” portrayals and is seeking the payment of unspecified damages (via The Guardian). The suit claims that the memoir has caused Morgan “serious damage to his reputation and to his personal and business affairs”, as well as “extreme mental anguish”. He claims that the passages had a direct, negative impact on a feature film that he was developing.
In the memoir passage about the violent altercation with their father, Mariah writes: “I witnessed the possibility that a member of my family could brutally die in front of my eyes.” Morgan emphatically denies this, claiming that “this cliched and racially charged portrayal of two Black males engaged in a physical struggle never happened.” He also accused her of trying to “play the victim card and curry favor with the Black Lives Matter movement”.
Mariah also alleges that Morgan physically abused their mother, which he calls “a false and defamatory lie.” In another passage, Mariah writes, “there was no telling what [Morgan] might do for money”, and that he once accepted a $1200 advance from an acquaintance named Virginia Cole Maddox to kill her husband in 1980. Morgan didn’t actually commit the crime, but Maddox did herself and was later convicted of murder
According to Morgan’s complaint, he did admit that payment when he testified against Maddox in court, but that there’s much more to the story that Mariah chose not to include in the memoir. His legal action clarifies: “When he learned of Maddox’s claim to have mistakenly shot her husband, believing him to have been an intruder, plaintiff immediately contacted the prosecuting attorney … [he] voluntarily testified before the grand jury, leading to Maddox’s indictment, conviction and incarceration for murder.”
Lastly, Morgan rejects Mariah’s description of him as a “sometimes drug dealing, been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother,” and denies her claim that “his rage was unpredictable.” He also claims that he wasn’t approached before the book was published to comment on any of these allegations or descriptions.
Morgan is actually the second Carey family member to sue Mariah for this book. Last month, her older sister Alison revealed that she’s seeking $1.25 million for “emotional distress”, claiming that the memoir contains “cruel and outrageous allegations” about her. In the memoir, Mariah describes situations in which Alison gave her third-degree burns by throwing scalding-hot tea at her, sedated her with valium, and offered her drugs.
In another passage, Mariah claims that when she was only 12, Alison left her with her boyfriend, who tried to kiss her. “Big sisters are supposed to protect you – not pimp you out,” Mariah writes in the book. Alison says the book contains “lurid claims”, and accused Mariah of inflicting her with “heartless, vicious, vindictive, despicable and totally unnecessary public humiliation.”
As of now, Mariah hasn’t commented on either of these lawsuits.
