Mariah Carey Tells Gayle King Losing Mom, Sister While Recording Album Was 'Difficult'

Mariah Carey's celebrating the upcoming release of her new album ... but she's opening about a tragic time in her life in a new interview, revealing there was a lot more going on behind the scenes of the recording than most of her fans knew.

In an interview with Gayle King on "CBS Mornings" Wednesday ... Mariah said the recording process for her upcoming album "Here For It All" was "extremely difficult," as she dealt with the deaths of her mother Patricia and sister Alison.

Mariah's mother and sister died on the same day back in August 2024 -- she was estranged from sister Alison -- and she went through deep emotions about the whole situation.

She told Gayle she was able to make peace with her mother, but she wasn't able to do the same with Alison ... she says she felt "really badly about" not being able to patch up her differences with her sibling before her death.

The interview wasn't all sad, though ... Mariah was also asked about her connection to Anderson .Paak, who's featured on one of the album's tracks.

ICYMI, the singers have been getting real close over the past year ... we caught them back in December holding hands leaving a restaurant just before Christmas, which is a pretty big time of the year for the "All I Want for Christmas Is You" singer.

Mariah played coy when asked about the gesture, and described Anderson as a "handholding club" ... but did say there was "something special" about having him around at Christmastime.