DWTS Alum’s Sister on Brother’s Death: ‘I Knew This Day Was Going to Come’

The sister of two former “Dancing with the Stars” contestants recently opened up about the difficulties her family navigated over the years. Angel Carter is the twin sister of season 9 DWTS contestant Aaron Carter, who People noted died in 2022 at 24. She is also the younger sister of season 21 alum Nick Carter.

Angel joined the June 26 episode of “The Squeeze” podcast to discuss Aaron’s struggles.

It was Angel’s first-ever podcast appearance, and she explained she wanted to “change the narrative for my family and to tell our truth in a way that is meaningful and helpful to society.”

She admitted of Aaron’s death, “I knew this day was going to come and I think he knew it too cuz he just couldn’t, he could not get out of it.”

Aaron Carter’s Parents Were Unable to Provide the Support He Really Needed

Angel noted she was one of five siblings born to her mother and father. Nick was the oldest, while she and her twin brother Aaron were the youngest.

Over the years, three of those five siblings have died. Angel detailed that the second oldest sibling, Leslie Carter, died in 2012 at 25. Angel’s other sister, Bobbie Jean, died in 2023 at 41. All three died of issues related to addiction and mental health.

She explained there was “a lot of love” in their home growing up, but both her mother and father had addiction issues themselves. “My dad was the nice drunk and my mom was the meaner one, so they just fought when they drank, which was all the time,” Angel revealed.

Nick was just 12 when he became a member of the Backstreet Boys. Angel and Aaron were just 4 then, and Aaron idolized his big brother. Aaron wanted to be just like Nick and started singing when he was 7.

Both parents became “laser-focused” on Nick and Aaron’s careers.

Leslie was a good singer too, but she was diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia as a teen and those issues interfered with her success. Angel indicated Leslie received “no support” from their parents because of their focus on Aaron and Nick.

Over the years, both Bobbie Jean and Aaron received mental health disorder diagnoses as well.

The family’s parents divorced when Angel was 15, and her dad died in 2017. She said her father’s “addictions definitely caught up with him.” She added that the divorce was “especially devastating for Aaron,” who carried the weight of the divorce, believing it was his fault.

Angel noted that as Aaron toured and became the breadwinner for the family, he just wanted to be home. Their parents would bribe him with big-ticket items, paid for with his earnings, to keep him performing.

The kids grew up with no boundaries, Angel shared. On top of that, she added, the family had fame, money, and addiction, along with multiple issues of sexual abuse. Angel, Aaron, and Leslie all experienced sexual abuse at some point, she revealed.

“I feel lucky that I didn’t allow those experiences to define me, but my siblings didn’t have the same response,” Angel explained. She added, “And there wasn’t anyone that we could go to” for support.

Angel Carter Prepared for Her Brother’s Death for Years

Aaron started smoking marijuana when he was 12 or 13, and Angel said she was addicted to Xanax for a year when she was 15. Drug use was common in the household and “Things were just really chaotic at home during that time.”

Angel shared that Aaron started experimenting with harder drugs by the time he was 15, and his intense drug use continued through his 20s. The family got him into rehab in 2016, which helped for a short time.

Nick orchestrated the family’s reality television show, “House of Carters,” which aired in 2006. According to Angel, this was Nick’s way to get the siblings away from their parents and earn some money.

“Nick’s hands were tied for so many years in helping his younger siblings because of my parents,” Angel noted. On the last day of filming, Nick sat the siblings down and offered to pay for rehab for all of them. Angel was the only one who accepted his offer.

Throughout their 20s, Angel fought hard to help Aaron. She was blunt and would call him out on things, and he didn’t like it.

Angel shared that he “wanted to hear that from mom and dad. But they couldn’t help themselves, so how could they help Aaron? What if my parents had gotten sober? Maybe Aaron would have seen that and gotten sober, too.”

Leslie’s death completely blindsided Angel, she admitted. “When she died I was already in therapy preparing for Aaron’s death. I thought he was going to die. I feared it my entire 20s.”

She Feels the DWTS Alum Was ‘His Own Worst Enemy’

After Leslie died, and then their father died a few years later, Aaron spiraled. “It just kept getting worse and worse and his addiction grew and grew and got worse,” Angel recalled.

Things took a turn in 2019. For a while, Aaron had a girlfriend who worked hard to get him to face his addiction issues. He stopped taking Xanax for four months, Angel explained. However, in July 2019, he told Angel he was “working with a doctor on my regimen” of medications. He insisted he needed them.

Aaron eventually revealed to Angel that when he was in rehab, doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He started microdosing on mushrooms, and his problematic behavior escalated.

“He was his own worst enemy, in a way. I ultimately, I couldn’t save him. It wasn’t my responsibility to save him, but I tried,” Angel shared. Unfortunately, she added, he had to do it for himself, but he had neither the tools nor the capability to do so.

“All he ever wanted was for people to like him. He was a people pleaser. He was a child that went through stardom where it was his job to go on stage and to make people happy,” Angel recalled. She added, “He gave so much of himself for people to just destroy him.”

Angel and Nick worked together to get restraining orders on Aaron, with their focus on getting his weapons taken away. As he spiraled, he became obsessed with weapons and Angel became quite scared.

Nick and Angel worked hard to try to help get Aaron get to a better place. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful.

She believes the most misunderstood thing about her is “the fact that people think that we didn’t do anything to help” Aaron. Angel said that perception “just could not be more false.”