Angel Carter opened up about navigating grief following the deaths of her three siblings Aaron, Bobbie Jean and Leslie, who all died from complications stemming from drug addiction.
On the one-year anniversary of Bobbie Jean’s passing, the singer, 37, got emotional as she discussed her mission to end’ generational dysfunction’ within her family.
‘A few years before Aaron passed away, he said to me something that really stuck with me, and he said, ‘Angel, you just don’t know enough about addiction.’ And it hit my heart, especially after he passed away because I don’t [know enough],’ she told People.
She continued: ‘The last couple of years, I’ve just been really trying to educate myself about this disease and how it affects people and how it causes things that they do that they may not mean to do.’
This includes finding age-appropriate ways to talk to her five-year-old daughter, who she shares with husband Corey Conrad, about substance abuse and boundaries.
‘That wasn’t done in my home growing up: providing a safe space for her discipline and allowing her to have her innocence,’ Angel explained. ‘I look back at Aaron’s life, and me and my sisters as well, and our innocence was taken away from us.’
Angel Carter Conrad spoke about navigating grief following the deaths of her three siblings Aaron, Bobbie Jean and Leslie, who all died from complications stemming from drug addiction; Angel and Aaron Carter pictured together in 2006
Angel went on to point out that ‘Aaron, being a child star and working like an adult in the entertainment industry’ robbed him of a normal childhood.
‘I think the most important thing is that my child is protected with her innocence, and she’s able to grow and learn and try new things and become the person that she wants to be one day,’ she stated.
The performer also revealed that her grief is not ‘linear.’
‘Having so much loss in my life, I do know what to expect to a certain extent now, and I want to continue to honor my family. So in those moments on those anniversaries — Aaron and I just had a birthday, we just turned 37 — and I really just try to be in peace and in that moment as much as I can and just honor them by talking to them and allowing them to still be present in my life,’ she explained.
Angel makes sure to keep her siblings’ memory alive by sharing memories of them with her daughter, who ‘knows who Uncle Aaron is and she knows Aunt Leslie and she knows her Aunt Bobbie Jean.’
She also revealed that Harper and her late twin Aaron’s son, Prince, three, ‘have play dates’ and are close.
‘He’s only 3 years old and he’s already reading and writing and he just blows my mind,’ she raved of her nephew.
While speaking about Bobbie Jean, Angel remembered her sisters as a ‘loving, funny.’
Bobbie Jean, like her brother Aaron and sister Leslie struggled with substance abuse. Leslie died of a drug overdose at age 25 in 2012. Leslie, (center) died of an drug overdose in 2012 at 25. Aaron passed away from an accidental drowning to his drug use in November 2022 (Pictured in 2006)
On December 23, 2023, Bobbie Jean (pictured in 2006) was found unresponsive in the bathroom of her Tampa, Florida home
‘BJ didn’t ask for what happened to her and it wasn’t her fault and she didn’t deserve that,’ Angel said of her sister’s tragic death. ‘I want people to remember her as a human being who deserved to be loved.’
Leslie passed away in 2012 at the young age of 25 from an overdose, Aaron died at 34 in 2022 from drowning, attributed to the effects of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane and Bobbi Jean died at 41 in 2023 of ‘intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine.’
In April, Angel had a candid discussion with Gayle King on CBS Mornings about their chaotic upbringing.
‘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,’ she recalled.
When asked if fame aggravated the family issues, Angel replied, ‘I do.’
Angel’s brother Nick Carter soared to superstardom as a member of the Backstreet Boys, while Aaron’s career skyrocketed with the 2000 chart-topper I Want Candy.
‘I think it changed everything, honestly,’ Angel added. ‘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 also confided in Gayle that for years, she had held onto hope that Aaron would find his way to recovery, though she conceded that she had ultimately lost all hope during his final days.
She shared her resolve to dismantle this pattern with her own child, aiming to grant them a sense of innocence that eluded Aaron throughout his life.
‘Aaron did not have his innocence,’ she explained. ‘He was working like an adult from a very young age. And he just wanted to be home.’
The Carter family has been rocked by the premature deaths of the three siblings in just 11 years (BJ, Leslie and Aaron are pictured 2006)
On December 23, 2023, Bobbie Jean was found unresponsive in the bathroom of her Tampa, Florida home.
Bobbie Jean – who was a mother of one daughter, Bella, eight – was on probation for cocaine possession when she died according to law enforcement – but her roommates had told them that she had not used any narcotics since her prison release.
Her official cause of death is intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine according to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner in Florida.
Her death was ruled accidental.
Fans may know Bobbie Jean from her appearance in the reality show House of Carters, which aired in 2006.
She, like her late brother Aaron and late sister Leslie, struggled with substance abuse.
Aaron died from an accidental drowning at his home in Lancaster, California, caused after his inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam, the generic form of brand-name Xanax. He was 34.