Mariah Carey has brother’s $20m defamation lawsuit over memoir dismissed

Mariah Carey has won the dismissal of a $20m defamation lawsuit brought by her brother over her bestselling 2020 memoir.

Justice Leslie A Stroth of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed Morgan Carey’s lawsuit on Monday, ruling that he had failed to establish that his sister acted with “actual malice” when writing about him in The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

“The court finds that plaintiff has not sufficiently pleaded actual malice on the part of defendant,” Stroth wrote in her ruling, according to Billboard. The judge added that Morgan had provided no evidence that the singer knew her statements were false or had recklessly disregarded their accuracy.

Morgan, 66, first sued his younger sister in May 2021, alleging her memoir had damaged his reputation by portraying him as a violent man with a history of drug dealing and criminal behaviour.

He objected in particular to passages in which Mariah described him as a “sometimes drug dealing, been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother” and alleged her “ex-brother” had sold cocaine in the 1980s, using the phrase “powdered party favours”.

Morgan denied the allegations, insisting he wasn’t violent and had no criminal record. He claimed that the book had caused him “extreme mental anguish” and that the damages he suffered exceeded $20m.

In 2022, the judge dismissed 14 of Morgan’s 16 claims against his sister and her publisher Macmillan.

However, she allowed him to pursue two claims over allegations that he had sold cocaine and had “been in the system”.

She ruled that other statements could be defamatory but that Morgan had failed to show that he had suffered damages.

Morgan amended his suit, claiming the memoir had cost him work. He claimed a film he had co-written was cancelled because the producer feared upsetting Mariah, and that he had struggled to find steady employment since the book was published.

On Monday, the judge dismissed the amended complaint as well, finding that Morgan had failed to show Mariah knew her statements were false or had recklessly disregarded the truth.

“While plaintiff alleges that defendant demonstrates ill will towards her brother, such statement is insufficient,” she added, according to Rolling Stone.

Mariah’s lawyer John Rosenberg welcomed the ruling. “Ms Carey is gratified that the court recognised that her memoir addresses significant issues of public interest and dismissed her brother’s defamation claims in their entirety,” he told Billboard. “The importance of the court’s decision goes well beyond her own interests in this particular litigation, as it confirms that authors must be afforded broad protection when they speak out on matters of public concern.”

Morgan’s lawyer, Richard Altman, disagreed with the decision and said that he intended to challenge it. “We respectfully disagree with today’s decision as being inconsistent with prior rulings in the case,” he said in a statement

Mariah’s older sister, Alison, filed a separate $1.2m lawsuit in 2021 over allegations in the memoir, including that she had offered the singer drugs, burned her with hot tea, and left her vulnerable to sexual abuse when she was a child.

Alison denied the allegations and accused her sister of using her celebrity to publicise sensational claims about a financially struggling relative.

She didn’t pursue the lawsuit and died in August 2024, aged 63.

Mariah announced her sister’s death the same day she revealed their mother, Patricia Carey, had also died.