Before his death at age 34, Aaron Carter was known for his career as a teen idol, but he wasn’t the only famous member of his family.
Born in December 1987, the “I Want Candy” singer and his twin sister, Angel Carter, were the youngest members of the Carter family, which also includes Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter, the late Bobbie Jean Carter and the late Leslie Carter. Nick, born in January 1980, was the first Carter sibling to gain international fame, but his younger siblings soon followed in his footsteps. Aaron began his music career in the late 1990s, opening for the Backstreet Boys when he was just 9 years old, and he quickly became a pop star in his own right.
In October 2006, the whole family teamed up for the short-lived E! reality show House of Carters, which also starred Aaron’s twin, Angel, and eldest Carter daughter Bobbie Jean (born in January 1982). The show was canceled after just eight episodes, and the Carters’ ups and downs only intensified.
Nick, meanwhile, struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, which he later discussed in his 2013 memoir, Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It, one year after Leslie died of a drug overdose at age 25.
“I began drinking heavily in my teens and then moved on to drugs at 18 or 19, starting with marijuana and moving up to cocaine, ecstasy and prescription painkillers among other substances,” Nick wrote. “My life plummeted to an all-time low. … My crowd made partying an extreme sport. We repeated that binge and bump cycle night after night.”
Aaron also struggled with substance abuse prior to his death in November 2022. “I’ll say here right in front of all y’all, I’m not ashamed of it. I have issues,” Aaron told Us Weekly in December 2017 following a stint in rehab. “I have post-traumatic stress disorder. … Everything just spiraled out of control.”
Keep scrolling for a guide to Aaron’s family: