Mariah Carey has successfully won the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by her brother, Morgan Carey, concerning claims made in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. Morgan accused his sister of falsely portraying him as a violent drug dealer, which he claimed caused him significant emotional distress.
Background of the Lawsuit
Morgan first filed the lawsuit in 2021 in New York’s supreme court, alleging that Carey’s memoir depicted him as a “sometimes drug dealing, been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother” and referred to him as her “ex-brother.” He argued that her claims about him physically abusing their mother were “a false and defamatory lie.” Morgan insisted he had no criminal record and was not violent, stating that the memoir had “ruined” him and caused “extreme mental anguish.”
In 2022, Judge Barbara Jaffe dismissed 14 of the 16 claims in Morgan’s original complaint and all claims against the book’s publisher, Macmillan. However, she ruled that Carey could be liable for defamation regarding allegations that he sold cocaine in the 1980s and had “been in the system.” Jaffe noted that claims of physical abuse and accepting money to murder someone could also be defamatory, but Morgan failed to demonstrate that he suffered damages.
