Angel Carter shared her thoughts with Gayle King on 'CBS Mornings.'
Aaron Carter's twin sister is shedding light on what she thinks may have led to the tragic deaths of three of her siblings.
Angel Carter was brutally honest about the "dysfunction" in her family in a candid conversation Wednesday with Gayle King on CBS Mornings. King noted that three of her siblings -- Leslie, Aaron and Bobbi Jean -- died in the wake of substance abuse issues. Leslie died at 25 in 2012 from an overdose; Aaron died at 34 in 2022 after drowning, due to the effects of taking alprazolam, which is a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane; and Bobbi Jean died at 41 in 2023 of "intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine."
With that in mind, King asked Angel to talk about what her family life was like growing up and why she thought these tragedies happened.
"There's certainly a generational dysfunction issue here that comes comes along with it, but as far as growing up, there was a time where we were a really close family. There was a lot of love. But there was a lot of chaos going on at the same time," she said. "Just fighting. My parents were just fighting all the time. Just dysfunction in the home. No boundaries. No stability. No one to talk to. It just felt like, if I had an issue going on I really couldn't have my parents to lean on to."
Angel then noted that fame added to the dysfunction. Angel's brother, Nick Carter, was a huge superstar with the Backstreet Boys, and Aaron's career also took off with the 2000 smash hit "I Want Candy."
"I do. I think it changed everything, honestly," said Angel when asked if the fame compounded the dysfunction. "Nick has been in Backstreet Boys since I was four or five years old. So, a really long time. We were a family that had no money. We were from upstate New York. My parents were poor. And they had never seen anything like this before. So, once the money started coming in, it just changed the dynamic because money became the moving force."
Angel had previously shared that she and her family tried "everything" to help Aaron before his untimely death. She even said she spoke to him two days before his death, to no avail. Angel told King she had hoped for years Aaron would find a path to recovery, though she admitted that she had lost all hope in his final days.
Angel said she can now only hope and work to break this pattern with her own child and give her child something Aaron never truly had: his innocence.
"Aaron did not have his innocence," she said. "He was working like an adult from a very young age. And he just wanted to be home."
Angel and Aaron's team will release his previously unheard single, "Recovery," on Friday. The album, Recovery, drops May 24, and proceeds from the album will benefit the Kids Mental Health Foundation.
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