Angel Carter is taking it upon herself to ensure her twin brother, Aaron Carter, is laid to rest in peace. For those that need a refresher, her brother was found dead in his bathroom in November and it was later discovered that he drowned in his bathtub after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam (Xanax).
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE magazine, she spoke about her need to ‘protect’ her brother’s legacy and opened up about her family’s rise to fame and wealth. More specifically, she talked about how that wealth and fame led to her family’s eventual downfall – and how other families can avoid the same.
“To lose a twin, it’s an out-of-body experience. He’s a part of me. And it was like when he died, I had this sense of, ‘I’ve got to get him in my house. I’ve got to bring him home and protect him,” she told the outlet. In an effort to preserve his life, death, and legacy, she brought his ashes home with her earlier this year.
“For a few months after he died, it was my last way to protect him. I don’t want anybody to do anything weird with him,” she said – adding that she plans on burying him at Forest Lawn in Southern California. “I can’t trust that anybody else is not going to exploit him. So at that time, that was my last act of love.”
In the wake of Aaron’s death, Angel Carter felt like she had to ‘get his story out there’ to ensure he doesn’t ‘die in vain.’ With so many families going through something similar – in regards to mental health and substance abuse – Angel decided to team up with On Our Sleeves, a national children’s mental health organization.
She hopes to use her family’s story – which includes the deaths of Aaron, their sister (Leslie Carter), and their father (Robert Carter) – to show other families what could happen if positive action isn’t taken. She wants others to understand that their deaths were a result of years of toxicity, abuse, pain, and suffering.
Angel Carter Explains When it All Went Wrong for Aaron Carter
In her interview with PEOPLE, Angel Carter explained some of the things her family went through and how those things eventually led to the tragic and sudden death of Aaron Carter in November. For starters, she cited her parents’ alcohol abuse – which grew worse once Aaron and his brother, Nick, rose to fame.
She described how ‘fame and money’ took over her family and the pressure from all of it led Aaron to turn to drugs and other harmful substances – which he became addicted to. She also cited the death of their 25-year-old sister, Leslie, in 2012 and their father, Robert, in 2017 as triggers to his addiction and death.
“I always felt like that was the beginning of the end. Aaron was already in a bad place, but it was like a domino effect,” she said of the deaths. In fact, Aaron decided to check himself into rehab and he was later diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. Still, his substance abuse continued.
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Aaron Carter died on November 5, 2022 at his home in Lancaster, California. It was his housekeeper who found him submerged under water in his bathtub with cans of compressed air and prescription pill bottles on the floor of his bathroom. His death was ruled an accident by the Los Angeles Couny Coroner.