Angel Carter is detailing the battles her brother Aaron Carter faced before his passing.
Nine months after the 34-year-old died due to drowning caused by the effects of substances, his twin sister is opening up about his years-long struggle with addiction.
Aaron's personal journey, as Angel recalled, seemed to take a turn for the worse after the passing of their sister Leslie, who died of an overdose in 2012 at age 25. The family another experienced another sudden loss after their dad Robert Carter died from an apparent heart attack just five years later.
"I always felt like that was the beginning of the end," Angel told People in an article published Aug. 9. "Aaron was already in a bad place, but it was like a domino effect."
After their father's passing, Aaron shared he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder, opening up about his mental health journey in 2019. Later that year, Angel and their brother Nick Carter were each granted restraining orders amid their ongoing family drama, which coincided with Aaron's personal struggles.
"I just kept waiting for him to snap out of it," Angel shared of her brother's final years. "But he never did."
In retrospect, Angel explained that Aaron ultimately "wanted so badly to be happy."
"He really fought to the end, but he just had too many problems to be fixed," she continued. "He'd become this person who we no longer recognized. I don't even think he recognized himself."
In November 2022, Aaron was found unresponsive at his home in California and was pronounced dead at the scene. It was a moment that Angel noted was the "worst possible outcome," adding that her brother "deserves to be here."
Now, Angel is honoring her brother's life by teaming up with On Our Sleeves in an effort to help break a "generational" cycle surrounding their family.
"Something positive has to come from all this," she told People. "I refuse to allow Aaron to have died in vain. I want Aaron's legacy to be more than those final years of his life."