{"id":636955,"date":"2026-10-21T03:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T03:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636955\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T03:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T03:28:11","slug":"mariah-carey-wins-dismissal-of-brothers-defamation-lawsuit-over-her-memoir-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636955\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariah Carey wins dismissal of brother\u2019s defamation lawsuit over her memoir | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from Mariah Carey\u2019s brother, five years after he accused her of defaming him in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the memoir, Carey described Morgan as a \u201csometimes drug dealing, been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother\u201d and called him her \u201cex-brother\u201d.<\/p>\n

Morgan first sued his sister in New York\u2019s supreme court in 2021<\/a>, alleging that she had falsely portrayed him as a violent drug dealer who had been to prison, and that her claim that he had physically abused their mother was \u201ca false and defamatory lie\u201d. He said he was not violent and had no criminal record, and said the memoir had \u201cruined\u201d him and caused \u201cextreme mental anguish\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2022, judge Barbara Jaffe threw out 14 of 16 claims in Morgan\u2019s original complaint, and dismissed all claims against the book\u2019s publisher, Macmillan. However, Jaffe ruled that Carey could be liable for defamation for alleging that her brother sold cocaine in the 1980s and that he had \u201cbeen in the system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jaffe also found Carey\u2019s claims that Morgan was physically abusive, and that he had accepted money to murder someone, could be defamatory, but said he had failed to demonstrate that he had suffered damages.<\/p>\n

Morgan\u2019s attorneys appealed Jaffe\u2019s ruling in an amended complaint filed in January. Morgan claimed that the production of a film he co-wrote was called off after the memoir\u2019s publication, which he alleged was due to a producer\u2019s \u201cfear of angering\u201d his sister, and that he was unable to find steady work. He sued for \u201cin excess of $1.5m\u201d in relation to the film\u2019s cancellation, as well as additional unspecified damages for emotional distress.<\/p>\n

But judge Leslie Stroth threw out Morgan\u2019s complaint<\/a> in documents filed on Monday, finding he had failed to show that his sister knew that what she was writing was false or that she had recklessly disregarded the truth, meaning his lawsuit fell short of the bar needed in matters of public interest.<\/p>\n

Morgan\u2019s belief that his sister felt \u201cill will\u201d towards him was \u201cinsufficient\u201d proof of actual malice, she wrote.<\/p>\n

Carey\u2019s lawyer, John Rosenberg, told People magazine that she \u201cis gratified that the court recognised that her memoir addresses significant issues of public interest and dismissed her brother\u2019s defamation claims in their entirety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carey \u201cbelieves the importance of the court\u2019s 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Richard Roth, one of Morgan\u2019s attorneys, told Variety on Tuesday<\/a> that he would appeal again.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the Careys\u2019 sister Alison also filed a $1.2m defamation suit against Mariah <\/a>over \u201ccruel and outrageous allegations\u201d in the memoir, including the singer\u2019s claims that Alison left her with third-degree burns after she threw a cup of hot tea on her back, offered her drugs, and sedated her with Valium when she was 12.<\/p>\n

Carey also claimed that her older sister put her in a vulnerable position when Alison was 20 and she was 12 by leaving her alone with her boyfriend. Carey alleged he was running a prostitution ring and forcibly tried to kiss her before being stopped by passersby. \u201cBig sisters are supposed to protect you \u2013 not pimp you out,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Alison denied the claims and accused Carey in her complaint of using \u201cher status as a public figure to attack her penniless sister, generating sensational headlines describing her lurid claims to promote sales of her book\u201d. However, she did not pursue the lawsuit and died in 2024, aged 63.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from Mariah Carey\u2019s brother, five years after he accused her of defaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-636955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}