Mariah Carey has prevailed in a defamation lawsuit brought by her brother, Morgan Carey, after a judge dismissed the case on Monday, according to Billboard. The ruling resolves, at least at the trial level, a dispute centered on passages in the singer's 2020 memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey."
Morgan Carey had alleged that portions of the book suggested he sold cocaine and was violent during the siblings' childhood. The judge found that he did not meet the legal threshold required to pursue the claim, writing, "The Court finds that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pleaded actual malice on the part of Defendant," according to Billboard.
The court further determined that Morgan Carey "fails to provide any proof" that Mariah Carey knowingly lied about him in the memoir, Billboard reported. The actual-malice standard requires a public figure to show that a statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth, a demanding bar that frequently proves decisive in defamation litigation.
John Rosenberg, an attorney for Mariah Carey, told Billboard, "Ms. Carey is gratified that the Court recognized that her memoir addresses significant issues of public interest and dismissed her brother's defamation claims in their entirety."
Morgan Carey's attorney told the outlet that he intends to appeal the dismissal. No further details about the timing or grounds of a potential appeal were provided in the source material.
The decision, reported on October 19, 2026, closes the current chapter of a family dispute that has played out in public since the memoir's release. For local readers following celebrity legal matters, the case illustrates how courts apply the actual-malice standard to autobiographical works that address matters of public interest.