Judge largely dismisses Mariah Carey’s brother’s lawsuit over singer’s memoirs

By Jonathan Stamp

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York judge has largely dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by Mariah Carey’s older brother over her memoir, a best-seller in 2020, but the singer still faces two other lawsuits.

In a 29-page decision Tuesday, Judge Barbara Jaffe of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan said Morgan Carey could sue his sister over passages suggesting he distributed cocaine to “the beautiful people” and implying he may have been “in the system” — in prison — for a serious crime.

However, the judge rejected objections to seven other passages from “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” including one that deals with a dispute between Morgan Carey and the Careys’ father that required police intervention.

Jaffe said that while that passage “reasonably conveys the defamatory inference that plaintiff mistreated his family,” Morgan Carey, who is about a decade older than his sister, failed to show that he suffered “special harm” from the damage to his reputation.

The judge also dismissed the lawsuits against the publisher of the memoirs. It was not clear to what extent Mariah Carey’s “alleged desire for revenge” showed that he knew that the controversial passages were untrue or had serious doubts about their truth.

Lawyers for Morgan Carey and the publishers declined to comment Wednesday. Lawyers for Mariah Carey did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mariah Carey’s memoir describes a broken, poverty-stricken childhood and the difficulties at the beginning of the career of the 51-year-old singer, who became known through songs such as “Vision of Love”, “One Sweet Day” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You”.

The defendants included the co-author of the memoir, the publisher Macmillan and Andy Cohen Books, an imprint named after the television producer and Bravo presenter.

The case is Carey v. Carey et al., Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, No. 152192/2021.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)