Original subtitles

[indistinct chatter]

- All right. Check, check.

One, two. One, two.

Check, check. OK.

- This is a sound check, so we'll check--

- OK. - With that.

[piano playing]

[both vocalizing]

- You're not getting the "ah" right.

[vocalizing]

Say "ah." Ah.

- Ah. - See?

You're kind of swallowing it. - Ah.

- OK. Ah.

Now you do it.

- [vocalizing]

- That's better.

Now do it again.

- I think I was probably around, like, 8,

and I started doing...

just talent shows in Tampa.

You know, Mom would drive me to these shows.

And I remember at the time, you know--

you know, Mom and Dad were pretty much, like,

really struggling with money.

And Dad was saying, I'm struggling with the bills,

you know?

And he had five kids,

you know, to take care of.

I hated it, like, that that was going on

and that it constantly was a story in our household.

So then I went and did this competition,

and finally, I won first place with it.

I actually got the first place prize of the competition.

And they gave us--at the time, it was a $150 check.

And I remember the only thing that I could think of

at the time, when we were driving back home,

was, like, you know, I want my dad to be proud of me.

I said, Mom, you know, I'm gonna give this check to Dad.

I'm just gonna completely give it to Dad.

I don't care about the money.

So I walked in, and I handed it to him.

And I remember it being dark, and just the light of the TV,

you know, kind of, like, lighting and everything.

And I mean, he turned around, and he looked at me.

And he was like-- it was the first time,

he was like, oh, my God.

Congratulations, son.

Like, he acknowledged me.

And I was just, like--

I was just so happy that night because I was like,

I realized--

I was like, oh, my God.

Like, not only am I getting attention from my parents,

you know?

But I felt like money was gonna be the solution to the problem.

[soft music]

♪ Over and over and over again ♪

[cheering]

- When fame embraces you, there's an invisible wall.

[fans chanting] Backstreet Boys!

- No one can see what's really happening to you.

No one can know the dysfunction.

No one can feel the grief and the anguish that consumes you.

[fan screaming]

No one can know that your protectors

have left you all alone.

People crave their superstars,

and you have to hide your pain.

My parents often fought about money.

- When Aaron's parents were going through a bitter divorce,

the truth of the matter is, they were fighting over Aaron.

- As Aaron got older, my mom really started to pin

Aaron and Nick against each other.

- How you doing, brother?

- When Aaron finally was able to access his money,

he owed the IRS $2 million.

He was broke.

- The decline was pretty rapid.

By the time he was 16, it was over.

[camera shutters clicking]

- How you guys doing?

- Good.

- All right.

- You know, the Carter family is doing a--

we're doing a reality show. - Shh.

Shh. - Uh-huh.

[chuckles]

- When I turned 18, Nick called me, and he said,

move to LA.

We're doing a reality show.

- Right now, we're going inside with TV's

newest dysfunctional family.

House of Carters shows what happens when the five Carter

kids move into big brother Nick's California manse

after years of separation.

- I want us all to sit at the table.

For me, the main concern is to just

bring my family back together.

- All my siblings and I wanted to do House of Carters.

We were all very excited about that time.

And it was Nick's way of getting us away from my parents

and getting some money in our pockets to start over.

- Leslie wants to start her singing,

and Angel wants to do modeling.

BJ wants to get into cooking.

And Aaron--well, obviously, Aaron's already got a career

so I'm not worried about him. - We already know who you are.

- And he's very talented.

So, you know, I think we're all going

to help each other move to that next step, you know,

and go there.

- When I knew that all five of those kids

were gonna live under the same roof,

I knew it was gonna be chaotic.

- Yeah, just hit me with that. - BJ.

- Hit me with [bleep]. Hit me with it, Leslie.

Hit me with it. Come on.

- I just thought, I hope they don't act like

they do at the house on camera.

- BJ, you're the one with the warrant!

[clattering]

[bleep].

- We filmed that show for two months.

And it was the first time in a few years

that we had to live together, because my parents had divorced

three years prior to that.

And it was dysfunctional.

- [barking] - You asked me.

Hey, grow the [bleep] up, kid.

Grow the [bleep] up.

- It was--we were still the same,

you know, as we were before.

- I was with Mom, and I didn't even get a chance to cry

about Mom and Dad's divorce.

- It's really not even an issue.

- Yes, it is an issue. - No, it's not.

- And it will always--

Angel, it is always gonna be a part of us.

- Yeah, but it's an issue we're not talking about.

- It's an issue if you let it be an issue.

- Leslie was in a position where

she really wanted to be heard.

BJ was struggling with her alcoholism at that point.

And Aaron was struggling with his own addictions as well.

- Everybody's supposed to work together for a common goal.

- What's the goal?

Tell me what the goal is.

- The goal is to get better as a family.

That's the goal. But most of the time--

- Nick was trying to be this father figure to us

because he's the older brother

and he feels a responsibility for us.

But the reality is, is that my siblings

and I needed our parents to step up.

Although the cameras portrayed this family that was fighting

and arguing and dysfunction,

there was still a lot of love between us.

- You know what?

We're brothers.

I'm sorry. - I'm sorry.

- I just-- - I said some mean things.

- I remember the last day that we had finished,

and we were all sitting in the living room.

And Nick sat us all down, and he said,

who wants to go to therapy?

I'll pay for it.

[sniffles]

And I was the only one who said I would go.

- I do.

I think it is.

I think it is the reason why we're still here,

because we got help.

After House of Carters, Aaron was already deep

in his drug addiction.

Marijuana was a major issue for him,

probably the first addiction that he had.

He explored taking ecstasy at a young age,

huffing duster cans.

And, you know, Xanax was a big problem for him.

We were privately trying to help him.

♪ ♪

When Aaron joined Dancing with the Stars in 2009,

we were all so excited for him.

- Pop star Aaron Carter

and his partner, Karina Smirnoff.

- He was excited.

And I knew that he was going to be amazing

because he was an incredible dancer.

- ♪ We're not gonna take it ♪

- We all looked at it as this opportunity for Aaron

to hopefully change his life into something better.

- Being able to climb back up the ladder,

work back up to the top, is so rewarding

because you got to work for it, and I'm working for it.

- Aaron and I did Dancing with the Stars together.

And to see him on the set of Sabrina

as, like, this little boy who was just,

like, goofy and silly and loving life

and loved hamming it up for the camera,

and then to see him on Dancing with the Stars,

and now he's older,

and you can see he's in his head.

- You start losing it, I'm gonna start losing it.

Then we both lose it. And then where do we go?

- I feel like, at this point, he was past the pop star phase.

But then I feel like there was this gap in,

you know, transitioning like we do from child to adult

and trying to figure out who you are as an adult.

Are you an adult actor?

Are you a pop star still?

Can you be a pop star still?

Where do you fit?

[peppy music]

You could just see that he was trying so hard.

He seemed really vulnerable.

♪ ♪

- Aaron and Karina.

[cheering, applause]

- It's been a lot of work.

And, you know, we didn't want to stop right now.

- Are you gonna relax and just maybe take it easy and--

- Yep.

Just gonna relax.

- Thank you.

- No problem.

- I remember when I was a little girl,

and knowing everything that was going on around me, I just--

and maybe this was from, like, watching Disney movies,

but, like, I just knew.

I was, like, one day, like, my prince is gonna

save me from this family.

- Angel and I met 13 years ago.

I'm at this event in June of 2011,

and I remember standing next to a colleague of mine.

And he said, hey, do you see that girl over there?

And I kind of, like, turned my head, and I looked.

And she, at that time, turned to kind of look at me.

And I, like, kind of, like, lost my breath for a second.

I was like, she's beautiful.

I was like, I'm gonna marry that girl.

And I saw her and then kind of went up to her,

and she was not interested in me, not interested at all,

which kind of intrigued me a little bit more.

- And I was not into Corey.

[chuckling]

Dating a nice guy was so foreign to me

because I was attracted to these guys who, you know,

were like my dad.

And Corey was foreign to me because he reminded me

of, like, just this nice guy.

- I have a very traditional family, if you will,

where we had a lot of structure.

My parents are still married to this day.

And so family was, like, a big thing for me, growing up.

- But after the third date,

I was like, there's something refreshing

about being with someone nice.

- I very quickly saw how good of a person Angel was.

We were kids.

We were 22, 23 years old.

In a lot of ways we were both lost and figuring it out

and broke and didn't know where our lives were gonna lead.

As Angel and I got to know each other,

I got to see more and more kind of the dynamic she had

with her family, which, as I very quickly saw,

was quite complex.

There was a time where Aaron was my best friend

in the whole world.

He lived with us several different times.

He lived with us at my crappy apartment in Hollywood.

He was a real person.

He was a human.

That was not the facade.

The celebrity of it all escaped as soon as, you know,

we were kind of in that personal relationship.

Aaron always was in a relationship.

I think Aaron, because his parents got a divorce

and he felt this responsibility,

there was a part of Aaron that wanted to start a family,

to show that he could be in a committed relationship

and be loyal and be a good dad and be a good husband.

And so I think there was kind of always this,

like, hope in his mind that he was gonna

be able to have those things.

[somber music]

- You have some other musical members in your family.

So would you ever-- - Leslie.

Leslie.

Leslie, she's-- she's very talented.

Very talented.

Honestly, hands down, Leslie's probably more talented

than me and Aaron put together.

- Yup.

- When they were younger, Leslie and Aaron

always talked about death and dying

and didn't see themselves living for a long time.

But when Leslie passed away,

her death completely blindsided me.

♪ ♪

- Leslie lived with Alyssa, her daughter,

and Mike, her husband.

And she had came down to New York

where me and Bob was staying.

She would come visit us.

She said she needed some sleep.

She had had Alyssa.

And Alyssa was young.

She went into the bedroom, shut the door.

I had been babysitting Alyssa all day.

When Bob came in, he went in there, and she was dead.

I was shocked.

I couldn't believe it.

- I just got a phone call that she had died

from a drug overdose, from taking pills

and mixing them.

- Bob took Leslie's passing hard.

She had a really hard time growing up.

And I think that she took pills to mask her pain.

- Leslie went through unimaginable abuse

as a child.

- You don't ever do that.

[smack]

- [crying]

- You don't ever dunk a baby's head.

- Maybe you'd like it.

[splashing]

- You like it?

- [sobbing]

- You like it?

- The day after Leslie died, we were at my dad's house,

and it was the first time that I had seen my dad

since we filmed House of Carters.

So it had been about five years.

Nick was doing a show not far away,

and he had every intention on coming.

And he called my dad, and it was the first time

Nick had talked to him in a while.

And the first thing that my dad asked him was for money--

the day after my sister passed away.

And he was like, yeah, I know.

I don't have any money.

I can't fix my roof.

You know, can you help me out?

And I remember

going into the house,

going upstairs into a closet, and I called Nick.

And I said, Nick,

I heard everything he just said.

Don't come here.

It's one thing that people--

they're always so hard on Nick

about Nick not being at Leslie's funeral,

and he had every intention on being there.

And I just felt so sad for Nick because it allows him

not to be able to grieve his sibling, who just passed away,

to not come and have that closure

and to be in that moment.

- That kid is Aaron Carter,

one of the Backstreet Boys's brothers.

- When I first started working for Aaron,

he was cute little Aaron Carter,

Nick Carter's little brother.

- So your brother is Nick from Backstreet Boys, right?

- We cannot ignore the fact

that you are the little brother

of Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys.

- They always just wanted to ask

tons of questions about Nick.

- You know one of the Backstreet Boys pretty well.

- Yeah. - Which one?

- [laughs] Who cares? - No.

[laughing]

[audience clamoring]

Maybe Nick will care.

- Nick! Nick!

Nick!

Nick! Nick!

- As Nick? Uh...

I think I did a good job, you know,

getting away from my brother's image

and being the little brother.

People don't really refer to me as that.

I've worked a long time to get away from that name,

you know, the little brother from Backstreet Boys.

I worked probably, like, 10 years straight for that.

- Aaron's back in the studio laying down a new album,

and he invited ET! to his Nashville session,

where he started the dream all over again.

- He had been saddled with a couple million dollars' worth

of debt from the IRS because his parents didn't

pay taxes when he was a child.

And he said, will you help me, you know, get a bankruptcy?

- We know Aaron best as the pop star who sang "I Want Candy."

He made millions off platinum selling albums

like Aaron Carter and Aaron's Party.

But all that cash was mismanaged

by his first manager.

Last year, at just 25 years old,

he owed more than $2 million.

- We got through the bankruptcy.

And as we were walking out of the courthouse, the IRS guy--

"Aaron, Aaron."

And he came running up to Aaron,

and he had a tear in his eye.

And he said, listen,

you've got a fresh start.

We're rooting for you.

It was the first time in his life

where he truly had a fresh start.

[soft music]

- Aaron called me, because he was trying to get

the band slowly back together.

Aaron's voice was beautiful.

You could tell he had been working with a vocal coach.

And Aaron looked strong.

He had been working out.

And he seemed to be completely changed

from the precocious kid,

and he was an adult.

It took a minute for me to see him in that light,

because I was so used to seeing Aaron

as that kid with the fake tattoos,

and now Aaron's tattoos are real.

When did this happen?

- I am so happy.

I'm the happiest guy in the whole world right now.

I got my life back.

I got my career back.

And, you know-- you know, there was

a long time where I didn't think it would

ever happen again, you know?

And--and it did, you know?

And it's pretty amazing.

A lot of people didn't think, you know,

I had it in me anymore, or that my fan base was that strong.

But they're amazing.

My fans are incredible.

And the most important thing about my fans

and me and that relationship is that I love them.

[cheering]

- I'm in college.

I'm at Brown, in Rhode Island.

And a friend of mine, who also was equally obsessed

with Aaron when she was young and knew my tale,

tells me that he's playing in Rhode Island.

I was like, oh, my God, this is the full circle

moment of my dreams.

[chanting] AC! AC! - Louder! Louder!

- I knew someone who worked at the venue.

And I was like, hey, is there any way

to send a message back to him, because I actually have, like,

known him since I was a kid?

And whoever his manager was at the time came out

and was like, oh, my God, Aaron really wants to see you,

so, like, come back.

So we go back, and all the sudden,

it's like, all of these feelings are, like, flooding.

And I cannot believe the situation I'm in.

It's almost a little bit, like, cognitive dissonance

because he's, like, pulling me onto his lap and, like,

telling me how beautiful I look

and how amazing it is to see me.

And I'm just giddy and in heaven.

I can't believe this is actually happening.

This is a side-by-side,

me at 12, and then me at 21.

Right before I'm about to go out to the front,

he, like--he's like, oh, Scout, come here and, like--

and, like, gives me a hug and then, like,

goes in to smooch me.

And I was like... [gasps] Ah!

- Need a little bit of old school for that.

- I go and I watch the show, and he pulls me up on stage.

He sits down, pulls me onto his lap, is serenading me.

I could have died in that exact moment.

And then, look at this, when he smooched me on stage.

He's texting me afterwards

and asks me to be his girlfriend.

[laughs]

And I kind of hedged him a little bit.

I'm like, oh, you're on tour.

Like, I don't know if that would work

and blah, blah, blah.

And I think, obviously, it was like,

not what he wanted to hear and, like,

maybe bruised his ego a little bit

'cause we didn't really, like--

we didn't really, like, talk again after that.

Looking back, he was someone who

I think was probably so lonely

and so much longing for, like, real love.

And I think seeing someone who he had known

since he was that young and felt comfortable with

and felt connected to made him feel like, OK,

I can talk to this person.

I can be around this person.

I can, like, be vulnerable in that way.

- Aaron just wanted to be loved.

Imagine, you know, being a child

and working like an adult

and having your childhood stripped away from you,

not having those experiences and creating friends

and building relationships.

That's all he wanted.

- We are gathered here today to celebrate

the love of Angel Charisma Carter

and Corey Scott Conrad.

- Looking back on my wedding day, everyone had a blast,

but it was really special because of Aaron.

He was so proud

and so happy to walk me down the aisle.

He's just sobbing the whole time.

So I felt like I was, like, smiling, like, extra big

to try to make up for it.

And I was, like, comforting Aaron at the same time.

He was my best friend, and he was, at the time,

the man in my life.

Not a father, but I didn't have my dad

to walk me down the aisle.

For Aaron, I think psychologically,

it was such a surreal moment to be in

because he had never had these normal life experiences.

- I remember Aaron kind of crying to my mom

and saying, there's so many people here

that love Angel and Corey.

That was foreign to him, because the people

who were at our wedding weren't there for anything

other than because they loved us.

They weren't there to take anything.

They were there to show their love for us.

- [sighs]

At the time, I had to pick

between my mom and my dad

of who I was gonna have at the wedding.

And I just--

I picked my mom.

I had started talking to her during that time again.

And because my dad was an absent father,

I wasn't really talking to him.

But the last conversation I had with my dad,

he said, why didn't you ask me?

I would have been there.

So I regret it.

- Bob loved his kids.

He loved a big family.

He was the only child.

And I think what it was with Bob, he had a family,

but a lot of times, they didn't act like a family.

And I think at the end, it affected

all the kids, every one of them's well-being.

Right after we got married was when we decided to have Kaden.

He said he just wanted to have one more son.

And I think he knew that raising kids with me

would be different.

And that's what he always wanted.

- My dad called me up one day and just said,

I just want you to know how sorry I am.

He was like, I should have been a better parent.

I was a bad dad, and I'm so sorry.

And he was sobbing, crying.

And...

I just said, it's OK.

Just owning that, that was all I needed

was for you to just acknowledge it.

He owned his responsibility in our childhood.

And he said, about my brother Kaden, he said,

Angel, I just want to get one kid, right.

Just one.

I mean, this is a man who has eight children.

[somber music]

He said, I just want to get one right.

♪ ♪

- You know, it makes me feel guilty sometimes.

But he was so good to Kaden.

[crying]

That's how I know that I don't think that he ever meant--

ever meant to hurt those kids.

I don't think he knew how to be a father.

But he was a great father to Kaden.

- Ginger and my dad had a lot of good years together.

But they had a lot of rough years too,

because my dad's addiction issues

were revealing themselves in the late stages

of their marriage.

- Bob had hurt his back, and he decided

to start taking pain medicine.

I believe it was his downfall,

and I did not want a part of it.

And I told him that he could lay those pills down,

or I would--

I was getting a divorce.

And so I left, and I thought he would quit

in hopes that I would, you know, stay married to him.

And he passed away.

He died.

He over--I mean, I don't know that he overdosed,

but...[sighs]

He had a heart attack.

- When they found him, they found

duster cans around his body.

With addicts, once things get really out of control,

you will reach for whatever you can that's the easiest,

the closest.

My dad, in his last years of his life,

he was living on the tour bus, he had no money.

- I couldn't believe it.

It was just shocking.

I'd never seen him do duster.

Never.

It was just--

it was eye opening.

- My dad passed away in May of 2017.

- Even though it was traumatic and shocking,

because she had had that kind of reconciliation,

she didn't feel resentment towards him anymore.

And so when he passed, Angel took it hard.

Aaron took it harder.

Aaron took it really hard.

- I'm excited about going with you, Dad.

- You are?

- Uh-huh.

- Well, I'm kind of excited about going with you too, man.

- When Bob passed, that was definitely where

Aaron had been in more of an upswing.

It was very quickly another downswing and back into drugs.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

He almost used it as a crutch.

It's like, well, Dad just passed away,

so I need to be on the Xanax because that's the only way

I'm going to cope with this.

After my dad died, I felt like, really,

things started to spiral for Aaron.

But I just knew that things were so out of control.

And if you don't stop, ultimately it's

gonna catch you at some point.

It caught my dad.

It caught my sister.

And I just remember being worried that something

was gonna happen to him.

- Let's turn now to Aaron Carter's disturbing arrest.

The former teen idol was busted on suspicion of DUI

and possession of marijuana.

- My dad died five weeks ago.

- What are your first thoughts when you see this?

- I'm a broken man.

Broken.

- What-- - Heartbroken.

- You know, when people see this mug shot,

they think, you know, this is a picture of a drug addict.

Are you a drug addict?

- No.

- Aaron had been dealing with drug addiction issues,

psychological issues.

- I suffer from multiple personality disorder,

schizophrenia, acute anxiety.

I'm manic depressive.

I'm prescribed to Xanax, Seroquel,

gabapentin, hydroxyzine, trazodone, omeprazole.

- Aaron, we're worried about your health, dude.

That's why.

- What did they say about your health?

- So what's your plan?

- Aaron, put the stick down.

- You're here for the train wreck.

Well, you need to fucking leave, OK?

There is no train wreck.

Sorry.

A big-ass pool like that does not look like

a train wreck to me.

That looks like a big-ass fucking pool.

- I was always trying to protect my brother

and to keep things private, and I would have preferred that

he was off of social media

and not talking about everything,

because that was another form of addiction for him.

- Aaron was always on social media.

We would be on the tour bus, and Aaron was constantly--

I was like, what is he doing?

- He would livestream constantly

and would read every single comment.

And unfortunately, there are people

that are mean, that are faceless,

feel like there's no repercussions

for anything you say or do.

And they would say horrific things to him.

And he would let it get to him.

- Shut the fuck up.

Shut the fuck up.

You're fucking pathetic.

You're a pathetic waste of a human.

And you're fucking cowards.

And you're a bunch of jealous little bitches.

I'm gonna come at you guys so fucking hard.

I'm Aaron Carter.

I hate fucking saying that shit,

but I have to fucking check you out.

- People would say the most horrible things

that you can imagine, just, you know,

that he looked like a meth head.

He is on drugs, or he's too skinny,

or he's a washed up pop star,

you know, just horrible things.

- He was in a vicious cycle

of not wanting to feel things,

and he would mask it by doing drugs, a variety of them.

He was so vehemently trying to deny it,

but in actuality, he knew it was true.

- He became defensive and less of himself,

and that suppressed who Aaron really was at his core,

because people were so cruel.

He was bullied relentlessly to the point

where he became a bully himself.

- Laughing your ass off.

Yeah, you keep laughing your ass off.

Looks like it's too big anyway.

Fuck you, bitch.

- He flipped it, and then he became the bully.

He became the aggressor.

It's like, well, if they're going to do it to me, well,

I'm gonna do it back to them. - Coward.

Pussy.

Pull up.

Triggered big time?

OK, here we go.

Here we go.

- And that then, unfortunately, went far beyond

just the haters in the comments.

And he then started taking similar actions towards us.

- Did they hurt me? Who? My family?

Of course they hurt me.

They tried to put me into a mental institution.

My own family.

For my money, for a conservatorship.

They don't--they don't care.

They don't care.

- Despite everything we did,

he didn't want help.

From an early age, he was always at the beckoning call

of whomever he was working.

You have to be here at this time.

You have to do this. You have to do this.

Then you have to go on stage. - Yeah, wear those.

- You can fit into them.

- Aaron.

- It's like a torture chamber.

[chuckling]

[groans]

- Hi, Aaron.

- Aaron got off of Xanax for four months in 2019.

And he was doing better, but he wasn't good.

And I knew that.

- [sighs]

[crying]

It really got me today.

[sighs]

I'm right here, so I'm looking at everything,

just so you guys know.

[sighs]

Just today was a tough one.

Every day is a challenge.

But today was a little tougher than the last...

[sniffles]

Few months.

[crying]

[groans] Shit.

- I said, you need to be on, like, an antidepressant

or something.

Like, there's-- you need to do something

to help alleviate the sadness that you're feeling right now.

And after four months, he came to me.

Aaron said, I'm going to get on my regimen again,

and I'm working with my doctor.

He said he had a doctor.

He had a psychiatrist that he was getting drugs from.

[somber music]

I could tell that he was already taking drugs again.

He was really manic and just really all over the place.

And all the same bad habits were happening again.

Couple weeks later, he FaceTimed me.

And he said, you know, I want to tell you something

that I've never told you before.

And he said, when I was in rehab,

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia

and bipolar disorder.

I said, OK, and I just remained very calm

and was listening.

But I said,

do you have thoughts?

And he said, yeah, I do.

I said, well, what are those thoughts?

And our daughter was eight months old at the time.

He said, well, I think about killing babies.

I come up with different scenarios in my head

on how I can kill babies.

And I said,

do you think about killing me?

And he said, no, absolutely not.

Who else do you think about killing?

And he said, Lauren,

Nick's wife.

I was just processing and taking it all in.

And I said--

I said, OK, I'm gonna go.

Let's chat in a little bit.

And I got off the phone.

And I was so stunned by the conversation

and so taken back and was processing everything.

And I told Lori what had happened.

- I just encouraged her to sleep on it,

think about it.

What are you comfortable with?

What if these are fish tales for attention?

- I did not tell Nick for several weeks after,

because I knew that if I told Nick,

that Nick would do something about it,

and I knew that

it would be over

for Aaron and his career.

And I didn't want to hurt him.

A few weeks later, he started to acquire all of these guns.

- This is my little baby.

Her name is Gomorrah.

- Big guns, AK-47s, and shotguns.

And he was going on Instagram Live

all the time, flaunting these guns.

[gun clicking]

- That ain't even a big strap.

[chuckling]

That's--that's the little boy.

12 corners of my house have guns in them.

I have M1A's in the corner.

I have four AR-15's.

All right?

I have two .44 Magnums, a knife--a 9, uh--

a 9 Glock.

I have two .45 Glocks.

You know, like, I got three shotguns,

and I got 10 millimeter rifles.

I will kill you.

OK?

I will kill you.

I will shoot you where you stand.

- He was so clearly in a very, very dark place

and making threats to Nick, to Angel, to me.

- You're going down, down, down, all of you guys.

My brother, you're involved with it--you too.

Angel, if you're involved with it, you too.

All of you guys.

And I've been waiting for you to make your moves.

Leave me the fuck alone.

- Obviously, he's not in his right mind.

Obviously, there's something going on

because the Aaron I know is loving and funny

and compassionate and the biggest hugger

in the entire world.

And this is such an extreme opposite from that.

- I just was so scared that if I didn't do something about it

and he was to hurt somebody,

how would I live with myself if he killed somebody,

and I didn't tell him?

So that was when I told Nick.

- Well, now it seems some famous siblings

are fighting over death threats and a restraining order.

- Nick Carter says he took out the restraining order

because Aaron threatened to kill his pregnant wife,

and he had no choice but to take legal action.

Nick says, "We love our brother,

and we hope he gets the treatment he needs."

- Nick was issued a temporary order for himself,

his wife Lauren, son Odin, and mother and father-in-law,

which states Aaron must stay 100 feet away from them.

- We felt like there was no other option but to get

a restraining order, to get the guns taken away,

to protect Aaron from Aaron,

because he was not in control of himself at that time.

And we hoped and prayed that by doing that,

it would be a wake up call, like a shock of like, oh, shit,

I need to do something different.

But unfortunately, the restraining orders,

when issued, only made him worse.

And he then

got even more violent.

- Do I look like a man you want to fuck with?

That's sad, Nick.

You are sad.

You are sad for doing that.

I'm gonna fight fire with fire.

If I gotta end up in prison to put these motherfuckers--

all right, cool. I'll be good in--

I'll be good in jail.

You wanna give me 5150?

You're a joke.

My family is a joke.

I'm the real joker.

Keep sending them my way.

I'm ready for anything at any time.

At any time.

Come play.

You come play, it's not gonna be nice.

Set that bitch on fire, baby.

[beeping]

- Armed away.

Exit now.

[beeping]

- After the restraining order is filed,

it has to be issued before they can actually

take any weapons away.

So in this gap, before the guns are taken away

but restraining orders have been served,

he drove to Vegas with a gun in his car,

live streaming to where we knew that he was there,

driving to Nick's community.

- His assistant was helping us at the time keep track of him

because we were really concerned.

The assistant was sending us these pings

because she had his location on her Find My Phone,

and he had to go to a concert in Kentucky.

And instead of going east across country,

he was heading toward Vegas.

[dramatic music]

We get a ping where he's getting off the exit

that Nick's home is on,

and then the next ping we get

is at some restaurant across the street from the entrance

to Nick's gated community.

We literally had this moment where, like,

oh, my God, he's so unhinged.

He's going to kill Nick or Lauren.

He's gonna kill somebody.

And then he's gonna kill himself.

- They have to call Las Vegas police.

They had helicopters.

They had SWAT.

We did not know what he was gonna do,

what he was gonna try.

- It was such a scary time to listen to their voices,

to Lauren, to Nick.

You could hear the terror

that they felt in those moments.

There was complete chaos going on in the home,

between crying and angry and scared

and trying to keep Lauren calm

because she was so pregnant at the time.

And he sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes and then left,

and we tracked him all the way to Kentucky.

- Ironically enough, I wish I had a woman like her.

I wish, and I pray every day that I--

that I find that woman, because my heart's broken

right now, so--[sobs]

- The last time I saw Aaron was in the courtroom, and we--

we got the guns taken away.

And he was really angry,

and he actually yelled to me.

He said, you're dead to me.

And it was horrible.

I just didn't even recognize him.

And I looked at him, and I was like,

what are you doing, Aaron?

Stop.

I said that to him.

I said, stop this. Stop.

What are you doing?

Like, we're sitting in a courtroom.

And he just--he--

it just--he was too far gone at that point.

- And I am in fear of my life, of your conglomerate of people

that you have been having attack me

and working with Lauren Kitt and Nick Carter,

and you're all gonna get caught!

- I'm very angry at Nick.

And I'm very angry with--

- I don't blame you.

I would be angry too, if--if my--

my kid--

- Ruined your reputation and your career

and just sit there and laugh about it.

He doesn't want you to be any more famous than him.

- Oh, my brother?

- Yes.

- Well, yeah, we've known that.

- And he's got a lot of power.

He's got a lot of power.

- What we wanted was for Aaron to get help.

We wanted for Aaron to get healthy.

We wanted Aaron to wake up and snap out of it.

- Aaron's mental illness manifested into

very dark things, and he did very monstrous things

in the last few years of his life.

He hurt a lot of people.

And the people he hurt the most are, honestly,

the people that really loved him and cared about him

and spent their whole lives trying to save him

and get him on the right path.

We all were trying to save him in any way we could.

We tried the 5150.

Let's get him into a hospital.

If we can just get him into a hospital,

they can evaluate him.

Let's just get his head clear,

and then we can maybe get back on track.

[banging on door]

- People were calling the cops all the time to go over there.

I mean, the police were there a hundred times, probably.

I'm not even exaggerating.

- How are you doing? - Good. How are you?

- Uh, I think I met you.

- Yeah, I was here before.

- Yeah, I met you too.

- Sometimes it was us calling the cops,

and other times it was just fans.

- There's been a multitude of welfare checks on me.

- Aaron would always be really clever.

And, you know, he was a Pied Piper that way

and, "Yes, sir. Yes, Officer."

And he knew how to answer the questions.

- After being here for 10 minutes,

do you think there's anything wrong with me?

- As far as we're concerned, no,

you don't meet our requirements because

you've been really cooperative.

You seem fine with us, so we're gonna

go on and bounce out of here.

- Unfortunately, when he was at his sickest, if you will,

in the most drug induced state,

he was with someone,

that they did have a child together...

And, within a few months, was losing custody.

- Hmm?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- We had reconnected.

We had two phone conversations that lasted about four hours.

And he said to me, Angel, there is nothing you can do.

Every time I take a pill, every time I do a drug,

I know the risk that I'm taking.

And he said, you're just not educated about addiction.

You just don't know.

- It was--it was just like something had snapped,

and there was no coming back.

And he actually told me.

He said, Angel, that Aaron is dead.

- [slurring] Because you're not smart.

[huffing]

- I had gotten a phone call that Aaron was on TikTok Live,

and he was huffing duster cans and passing out.

He was driving his RV down the road while intoxicated,

and everyone was in crisis mode during that week.

So I finally called him on Wednesday.

And I said, Aaron, what is going on?

I said, I saw you on Live, and he's like,

that didn't happen, Angel.

I was falling asleep.

Like, everything is fine.

I'm fine.

I said, Aaron, I saw it with my own eyes.

I saw you.

You were huffing duster cans.

I saw it.

He said, well, you're the reason

why I'm addicted to drugs.

It's your fault.

And I said, what are you talking about?

Why are you blaming me?

He said, because you guys always make me the scapegoat.

And I said, Aaron, that is not fair.

And you know that is not fair to say.

It was like, how can you possibly

be blaming me for this?

And I said, Aaron, please, we need to get you help.

And he said, well, I want to see you.

And I said, I want to see you too.

I said, but it needs to be with a therapist,

someone who's gonna mediate.

And he said, OK, OK.

I was frustrated.

I was frustrated that he had blamed me

and that he was not owning his addiction

and what he was doing.

So I said, I'm gonna get off the phone now.

We'll talk later.

And he said, OK, I love you. Bye.

And I said, bye.

- It was a Saturday morning, and Angel, Harper, and I

are in our bathroom.

And we're dancing, and we're blasting music.

We were just having a fun day with just the three of us.

And Angel gets a phone call and kind of looks at me.

And she runs downstairs,

and I just hear her scream.

And I knew immediately what it was.

And I remember hearing her, and I turned the music

a little louder so that she couldn't hear

Mommy screaming downstairs.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- They found him in the bathroom.

♪ ♪

He drowned on his fluids from huffing

so many duster cans and a mix of the drugs.

- I'll never forget, you know, being in London at the time

when it happened and--

and getting the text message.

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

It's still unbelievable to this day.

And I haven't even had a chance to grieve about it.

♪ ♪

- Aaron and I were so close.

[crying]

♪ ♪

[sniffles] I'm sorry.

♪

- When I found out that he had passed, it, like--

God, it hit me so much harder than I thought it would.

It's not like we were super close friends.

It's not like I kept in touch with him for years.

And at the same time, like, this person was so much

a part of my heart and my story.

Yeah, God, it just really hurt.

And it hurt me for his whole family and for the way

that the press was taking it, and then people

just being so vicious and not having any compassion

or understanding for what it's like to struggle

with addiction, let alone, like, mental health and trauma

and, like, what it must have been like for him as a child,

to have that much pressure on him.

- When I heard about Aaron's passing, it hit me hard.

And to think that he passed away so young

is so heartbreaking because he had so much to live for.

He was such a beautiful boy,

and he was such a beautiful presence.

[stirring music]

♪ ♪

- I can't do anything about what's happened,

but what I can do is try to make sense of it.

And how we make sense of it is addressing

mental illness in this country.

- You know, the only worry-- the worry people should have

is that, you know--

my heart's broken.

So--um, I just--

[crying] You know, I--

- Well, I would love if you could get out into the world.

- No, I'm a--

Lori, to be honest, like, I love being home.

You know, I love being home

because I never was home as a little kid, so.

[crying]

- Well, hope springs eternal.

- Well, I have--

I have no other words but to say thank you for that.

- Aaron is, right now, just dancing and celebrating,

and no more pain.

We all know he was riddled with pain

and just the thought and that hope,

believing that the struggle--

- After Aaron passed, Angel thought,

maybe this is a wake up call for BJ,

because BJ had struggled with addiction and sobriety

for many, many, many years.

- I didn't even know how bad her addiction was either

because she's so good at hiding it.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- I'm telling the truth.

- I don't know.

- You better think about it.

- She did not want help.

She was too far gone.

She actually told me.

She said, if I can find a way to do drugs, I will.

- Hey, BJ.

[thud]

- Ow. [laughter]

- When she died on December 23, she died by fentanyl.

- And that, for Angel, was now, at that time, the third sibling

that I've been with her while we found out

that a sibling had passed.

And it was, again, like another Christmas,

going through the grief of a sibling gone too soon.

- She said, share my story.

And I told her I would.

She always felt like the black sheep of the family,

nobody cared about her.

We have to do something.

This cannot just be swept under the rug.

How do we stop this? How do we stop this?

We stop this by speaking out about it.

I just think that there's a life lesson within this,

you know, to take something so tragic

and to turn it into something positive,

which is exactly what Aaron would want.

And that's why I'm here.

[children giggling, playing]

- My twin sister means a lot to me, and she's just--

oh, she's always been there for me,

and I've always been there for her.

- That's the twin bond where I feel so connected to him,

that I can be this voice for him,

because I know that Aaron, in his right mind,

if he could speak today,

this is what he would be saying,

because Aaron loved people.

He loved being there for people and showing up for people.

And I want people to remember that part of him.

- I love all of you, all my fans, very much,

just as much as I care about my sisters, you know, my brother--

and my brother and my sisters.

- Here's the truth.

This is what happened.

- Hi, this is Aaron Carter,

and you are listening to Radio 102.5.

- I have always dealt with my emotions head on,

and I don't ever want to not feel the pain

and the sadness that I feel for my siblings,

because at this point, that's how I connect with them,

is in those moments.

And I don't ever want to not cry for them

because they're not forgotten.

They are remembered,

and they deserve that.

[waves crashing]

[gentle music]

I'm so thankful I have you because there's

only one person who understands what we went through.

- We're the only ones left.

The generational cycle, I want it to stop.

I want it to stop.

I want to break it so badly.

And I don't want it to affect my children.

I don't want it to affect your children.

Our parents don't define us.

I know that.

You know that.

Unfortunately, BJ, Aaron, and Leslie, they did not know that.

They had no idea that they could get out.

They didn't deserve it.

They did not deserve the life that they got.

They did not deserve what happened to them.

And sometimes I feel guilty about that.

Sometimes I feel like it was my fault, you know?

Because I started it all.

Because it started with me.

And then when I left, it became about Aaron.

Then it became about everybody else.

I mean, and then obviously, you were more abandoned--

which was horrible.

It was horrible that that happened to you.

When I was on the outside, and I was--

I was in another place, and I was traveling,

and I saw things happen to Aaron

and saw things happen to you and saw things happen

to all these people, and I couldn't

do anything because I was--

I was someplace else--

I couldn't help you guys.

That--that, in itself, is what makes it hard because I wanted

to go in there and scoop up.

But you guys weren't even 18 years old.

You couldn't escape.

You couldn't get out of there.

And there were so many times I tried to intervene.

There was a lot of times.

I look back on these old pictures of us,

and, you know, you were the littlest, you know?

And the oldest and the littlest,

and we're all that's left.

We're all that's left.

And I'm proud of you.

And I'm proud to be your brother.

I am proud of my baby sister.

I'm proud of you.

- I'm proud of you.

- I love you.

- I love you too.

- [sniffles]

- Um...

And I want to perform a song tonight for you that I haven't

performed in a little while.

And I want to dedicate this to my family.

My sister's in the audience tonight, I just want to say.

[cheers and applause]

I love you, Angel.

[music playing]

♪ Feels like we've been ♪

♪ Through some wars together ♪

♪

♪ Nobody else could understand ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Way too many nightmares to remember ♪

♪ But that was real life back then ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Always hoped your tomorrow ♪

♪ Would be better than the day before ♪

♪ I hoped you'd find ♪

♪ Your road to follow ♪

♪ To a place you were happy in this world ♪

♪ ♪

♪ 'Cause it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ Miss you with all my heart ♪

♪ You know I always will ♪

♪ And I always prayed for peace ♪

♪ Somehow your soul could feel ♪

♪ You know it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ 'Cause it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Miss you with all my heart ♪

♪ You know I always will ♪

♪ And I always prayed for peace ♪

♪ Somehow your soul could feel ♪

♪ You know it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ 'Cause it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Miss you with all my heart ♪

♪ You know I always will ♪

♪ I always prayed for peace ♪

♪ Somehow your soul could feel ♪

♪ You know it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ 'Cause it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

♪ Miss you with all my heart ♪

♪ You know I always will ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Always prayed for peace

♪ Somehow your soul could feel ♪

♪ You know it hurts to love you ♪

♪ But I love you still ♪

Aaron.

[cheers and applause]