Aaron CarterTwin Sister, Angel Carter Conradwas sad but not surprised by her brother’s death in 2022.
Angel, 36, sat with Taylor Lautner and his wife, also named Taylor Lautner, in the couple’s relationship The squeeze podcast to discuss her family’s complex dynamics and her siblings’ untimely deaths. Her sister, Leslie Carter, died at age 25 in 2012 from an overdose.
“Her death took me completely by surprise. I didn’t expect that,” Angel shared. “When she died, I was already in therapy preparing for Aaron’s death. I thought he was going to die.”
The “Aaron’s Party” singer died years later, in 2022, due to the effects of using alprazolam, which is a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane. He was 34 years old.
“I feared it all of my 20s,” she said of Aaron’s death. “I knew this day would come. And I think he knew it too, because he just couldn’t – he couldn’t snap out of it.”
Angel said she served as “the peacemaker” in the family and tried to help Aaron with his struggles with addiction over the years.
“He didn’t want to hear it from me,” she admitted. “I was his sister, like, ‘Stay on her street. You are my sister. I don’t want to hear it from you.’ Like, he needed his parents to step up.”
Angel detailed her traumatic childhood, including allegations of sexual assault and years of substance abuse among family members. His other sister, Bobbie Jean Carter, died at age 41 in 2023 of “intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
Angel’s only surviving sibling is NickCarter44, by the Backstreet Boys.
“We had no limits in my family,” she said. “I feel lucky that I didn’t let those experiences define me, but my siblings didn’t have the same response to it and there was no one we could turn to and say, ‘Hey, this is happening.’ ”
Angel’s father, Robert Gene Carter, died in 2017 after offering a tearful apology to his daughter.
“He called me two years before he passed and apologized profusely, was crying and just owned up to his part,” Angel said on Twitter. The squeeze. “(He) was like, ‘I was a terrible father.’ … ‘I’m sorry for what I did.'”
She continued, “Just hearing that from him was all I needed.”
Angel, whose parents divorced in 2004, said she hasn’t had a similar conversation with her mother, who still lives.
“It’s a complicated relationship,” Angel said of her mother, noting that she worked as an adult to understand and set boundaries in her life.
“I had to set boundaries for myself with my mom to protect my growth and my healing, and to evolve,” she explained. “So right now, my relationship with my mom is just, it doesn’t exist at this point.”
She added that she is open to reconciliation if her mother “decides to change her life and own what she is doing.”
“I have a lot of forgiveness in my heart for every member of my family because I knew what it was like growing up in that house,” she said. “I now have a deep understanding of psychology and why these types of things happen, especially with addiction. It doesn’t do justice to point the finger at anyone and say, ‘You did this.’ No, all we have is today and tomorrow and moving forward, and I would like to move forward and continue living my life and live in a space where I don’t hold on to the past.”
Aaron’s struggles were recently explored in the documentary series Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter. In addition to Aaron’s personal tribulations, the show also covered the multiple allegations of sexual assault against Nick. Former boy band member denied the accusations against himeven calling a claim “a factual impossibility.”
Angel and Aaron’s team too recently released his new single, “Recovery” and album of the same name. Proceeds from album sales will benefit the Kids Mental Health Foundation.
Aaron is survived by her 2-year-old son, Prince, who the star shared with his ex-fiancee, Melanie Martin.
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