Saturday 5 August 2000

Mariah Carey's family at each other's throats

Shocking revelations in a planned tell-all tome by Mariah Carey's estranged sister Alison have fanned a long-smoldering family feud into a blazing inferno. "Everyone is freaked out. This has become an all-out family war," Alison's ex-husband, Dale Scott, 41, tells Star.

According to published reports, Mariah was trying to hold her head high as HIV-positive Alison revealed plans to trash her famous sister in a book called Mariah and Me. This in turn has prompted Alison's ex-husband to blow the whistle on a child custody dispute that has been raging in the Carey family for years. Scott says he hasn't been allowed to see his and Alison's 12-year-old son Michael in nearly four years because Mariah, 31, and her money helped her mom, Patricia Carey Vian, win the boy in court.

"Mariah's mom had basically hid my kid from me ever since she got legal custody of him," declares Scott. "They won't let me even call him". Alison, 38, plans to use her new book to paint her kid sister as a boy-crazy orphan raised in a hellish household where child sex abuse, drug dealing, violence and marital infidelity were common.

But Scott and Alison aren't the only ones making scandalous charges against the singer and her mother. "Mariah and Pat told us that if we said anything about them, we would have to deal with the consequences," says a family insider. "I took that as a threat."

In 1993, the Carey clan was still close enough that Mariah invited her sister, her brother Morgan and other relatives when she married reocrd exec Tommy Mottola. But insiders say things started to unravel when Alison was asked during an interview whether success had changed Mariah. "No," she replied, "she's always been a bitch."

Mariah never forgave Alison, say insiders, and then she sided with Patricia in the custody battle for Michael. Alison and Scott were married in 1985 and divorced in 1989. She fled with the child and Scott lost touch with him. But in the 1990s, Pat decided Alison's drug problems created a "high risk" household, so she began the legal process of adopting Michael, and Mariah set up a trust fund for his care.

Alison also has another son, Sean, who was born when she was 15. Mariah also cares for him. Blasts Pat: "It has saddened me to witness Alison's self-destructive behavior. She's been addicted to alcohol and other drugs for over 25 years and lost custody of two of her children. When Mariah was 3 years old and my divorce was finalized, Alison's father took custody of her. Alison never lived with Mariah after that. But Mariah has supported Alison's children and provided a safe home for them. Alison is a desperate soul and my prayers go out to her because I know how troubled she is."

In 1996, all of Scott's ties to Michael were severed when the court granted custody to Pat. The insider says: There were no grounds to keep Michael away from his father and his grandparents. Mariah pretends she's a sweet, caring person. The truth is, there's another side to her. She can be a mean, manipulative person."

But Alison's oldest son, Sean, now an Ivy League law school student, supports his aunt. "Mariah became caretaker of our family at an extremely young age," he says. "Without Mariah, I don't know where I'd be today."

(National Enguirer)



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