Jordin Sparks Mourns Teenage Stepsister

Jordin Sparks attends the 17th Annual Harold & Carole Pump Foundation Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on August 11, 2017. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Harold & Carole Pump Foundation)

Jordin Sparks, a singer-songwriter who rose to fame on “American Idol,” revealed that her step-sister died from complications from sickle-cell anemia.

Bryanna Jackson-Frias, 16, died Tuesday, Jan. 30, Sparks said, after her lifelong battle with sickle cell anemia, which causes red blood cells to stick to vessel walls and block the blood flow.

“Bry went peacefully to Heaven,” Sparks’s mother, Jodi Jackson, wrote on Facebook, according to People magazine. “I can’t help to think [that] she’s smiling just like this. Thank you all for your prayers.”

On Instagram, Sparks shared her heartbreak.

“My heart is just so heavy & broken. I’m in shock, numb and feel everything all at the same time,” Sparks wrote. “Leah & Rasual (one of my closest friends and her amazing other half who also was a great friend), Bryanna (my step sister) and Q (my little cousin), you were such bright lights in this crazy world.”

She was referring to Leah LaBelle, an “American Idol” singer and her husband, Rasual Butler, who both died in a California car crash on Wednesday. Butler was 38 and LaBelle was 31.

Sparks continued: “You made everyone better just by knowing them. And your smiles made anyone’s day better. The world is less sparkly without you in it. Rest In Peace and Power. I love you forever.”

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