RAYE’s sister Amma opened up about the frightening reality of watching the singer struggle with substance use in 2019. RAYE, whose real name is Rachel Keen, described that period as a “pretty dark year.” She said personal pain, career frustrations and substance use had taken a serious toll on her life.
RAYE’s sister Amma recalls fearing for her life during 2019 substance struggles
Amma lived with RAYE during that difficult period and was only 18 at the time. She told CBS that she regularly checked on her sister because she feared something could happen to her. “It was pretty traumatic. It would be me that had to double-check she was okay and, yeah, she was still alive frankly,” Amma recalled. She added, “I was only 18, so yeah, I was that worried.”
RAYE also spoke candidly about how serious her struggles had become. “Interestingly, there was a time when I was just not sober at all. I was really in the deep end,” she admitted. At the same time, she kept much of what she was experiencing hidden from the people closest to her. “I was very good at hiding what I was going through and what I was doing from my family,” she said.
Her family eventually became an important part of her recovery. RAYE specifically credited her grandmother with sending Bible verses that offered comfort during that period. She also began processing some of her experiences through songwriting, which later became an important outlet for subjects she had struggled to discuss openly.
Her personal difficulties unfolded alongside years of frustration in the music industry. RAYE signed with Polydor Records at 17 in 2014 but spent nearly seven years waiting to release an album of her own. By 2021, she publicly expressed her frustration with the label and later continued her career as an independent artist.
RAYE eventually explored painful experiences and unhealthy coping mechanisms on her debut album, My 21st Century Blues. She later explained that her approach to those emotions had changed. “I’ve found discipline and abstinence in my life, and it’s a beautiful thing,” she said.
The singer added that she could now occasionally enjoy a glass of wine without using alcohol to “fix or bury or numb or escape” what she felt. Her sister’s recollection offered another perspective on just how serious that earlier period had become for RAYE and those around her.
