One starred in arguably the biggest boy band of all time, while the other recorded a multiplatinum record by age 12. But while Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and his younger brother Aaron Carter seemingly lived their music dreams, their success also led them down a divisive and self-destructive path they never fully escaped.
The frayed relationship between Nick and Aaron is getting a fresh look with the Tuesday release of The Carters: Hurts to Love You, a two-part Paramount+ documentary. Featuring new interviews with Nick and his sister Angel Carter Conrad, the project examines the tumultuous legacy of their family and the tragic events that have plagued them.
Since 2012, three of the five Carter siblings—including Aaron in December 2022—and their father have died. “Fame and money destroyed our family,” Nick bluntly says in The Carters trailer.
The most public example was the rift between Nick and Aaron, whose war of words took the attention off their music and highlighted the pitfalls of their meteoric celebrity.
Nick and Aaron had stressful childhoods
According to Nick, joining the Backstreet Boys at age 13 was a chance to escape a toxic home environment. In his 2013 memoir Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It, Nick wrote the frequent fighting and partying of his parents, Jane and Robert Carter, created an “incredibly chaotic” childhood for himself and his siblings.
Nick, born in 1980, was the oldest. His sisters Bobbie Jean and Lesie arrived in 1982 and 1986, respectively. Rounding out the bunch were twins Aaron and Angel, born in 1987.
“My siblings and I weren’t particularly well-nurtured as kids. I’m sure our parents loved us, [but] they didn’t demonstrate their love in ways that typically make kids feel safe and secure,” he wrote, according to Today. This could explain why after turning 18, Nick fired his parents as his managers.
Meanwhile, Nick inspired his younger brother to also pursue music. Aaron Carter opened for the Backstreet Boys as a 9-year-old—performing “Crush on You” by the Jets—and released his first album in the United States in 1998. He made two more by 2001, becoming a bona fide star with hits including a cover of The Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy” and “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It).” He also appeared on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel programming.
However, in the 2024 documentary Fallen Idols, Nick and Aaron’s cousin and a family friend alleged Jane and Robert—now managing Aaron’s flourishing career—encouraged a rivalry between the brothers. “You’re never going to be as good as your brother,” the family friend, Jen, recalled Jane and Robert telling Aaron. “That ended up being a massive chip on Aaron’s shoulder.” This budding jealousy only intensified as the brothers’ personal problems began to overshadow their music.
Nick didn’t attend his sister’s funeral
Jane and Robert divorced in 2003, and Aaron’s relationship with his mother also deteriorated. Then 16, Aaron filed for legal emancipation and accused her of stealing $100,000, though the situation was resolved within a month.
Nick became embroiled in his own legal trouble. In January 2002, police arrested him at a Florida nightclub and charged him with resisting an officer. Then in March 2005, he was apprehended again on drunk driving charges. Nick later revealed he battled substance abuse and decided to change his lifestyle after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle, in 2008.
In the meantime, his relationship with Aaron continued to show signs of fracture. In 2006, the brothers engaged in a fistfight on the set of House of Carters, a reality show documenting all five siblings living in the same house.
The family rifts became more obvious when Leslie died of an apparent drug overdose in January 2012. Although the news devastated both brothers, Nick refused to attend her funeral because of the feuding.
Five years later, their father died of an apparent heart attack. In the wake of both tragedies, the siblings’ animosity reached a breaking point.
The brothers were fully estranged for years
Only months after his father’s death, Aaron was arrested in Georgia in July 2017 and charged with driving under the influence and possession of marijuana. In response, Nick shared a statement on Twitter (now X) offering to help his brother. “Family isn’t always easy, [but] we’re all here for you,” he said.
However, Aaron accused Nick of using the situation “for his PR” and refusing to speak in private. “If my own blood truly cared about my well-being, why wouldn’t he call me directly and have a conversation instead of making this about him through a very public forum?” Aaron wrote. Later that year, Aaron entered rehab for the second time.
Aaron elaborated on the extent of his substance abuse and mental health issues during a September 2019 appearance on the TV talk show The Doctors. He revealed he suffered from multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and acute anxiety, and that he became addicted to huffing, which prompted his return to rehab.
Meanwhile, the sibling animosity hit a breaking point that same month when Nick announced in a social media post he and sister Angel acquired a restraining order against Aaron. He cited “increasingly alarming behavior” and alleged Aaron had threatened to kill his wife, Laura Kitt, and their unborn child. “We love our brother and truly hope he gets the proper treatment he needs before any harm comes to himself or anyone else,” Nick wrote.
Aaron denied the claim and wrote the same day that he and Nick—who hadn’t seen each other in four year—were “done for life.”
They never reconciled before Aaron’s death
As it became clear Aaron didn’t have control of his addiction—fans worried he was huffing during an Instagram Live video in September 2022, provoking a welfare check—Angel became open to reconnecting with her twin. They periodically spoke on the phone and had one final conversation that November.
Angel told People that when she confronted him about the Instagram video, Aaron denied using drugs and said it would be her fault if he had. “And I said, ‘Aaron, that’s not really fair. You can’t, don’t blame me for this,’” Angel explained. “I was angry, honestly.”
Although they discussed meeting in person after a three-year absence, the chance for a reunion ended three days later on November 5. Police found Aaron dead in his bathtub inside his Lancaster, California, home. A coroner’s report later revealed the cause of death as accidental drowning, which occurred after Carter inhaled difluoroethane and took a generic form of Xanax.
As he had done previously, Nick reacted to the news about his brother on social media. “My heart has been broken today. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded,” he wrote on Instagram.
While the brothers never reconciled, a friend of Aaron suggested he actually looked up to his older sibling and spoke of repairing their relationship up until his death. “Mentally ill people think differently. He was… pushing, poking to get that attention,” Gary Madatyan told Page Six. “Aaron did things he should have never done to his brother, but we’re talking about mental health. He was crying out for help.”
Nick finds solace in raising his own family
The Carter family experienced even more tragedy in December 2023, when Bobbie Jean died in Florida at age 41. But even as he grieved his brother and sister’s deaths, Nick continued to draw his own negative headlines.
In December 2022, a 39-year-old woman filed a sexual battery lawsuit against Nick in Clark County, Nevada. Shannon “Shay” Ruth, who identified herself as autistic and living with cerebral palsy, accused the singer of raping her inside his tour bus and infecting her with HPV when she was 17.
Nick’s legal team denied the allegations, but there was immediate fallout. Following news of the lawsuit, ABC canceled the televised music special A Very Backstreet Holiday featuring Nick and his bandmates. Then the 2024 docuseries Fallen Idols examined Ruth’s claims, as well as other assault allegations from two other women, Melissa Schuman and Ashley Repp.
Nick denies all allegations and has filed countersuits against Schuman and Ruth for defamation. Their cases are set to go to separate trials in December and March 2026, respectively.
In the public interviews he’s given, Carter said he’s still trying to make sense of Aaron’s death and has relied heavily on his own family for support. Nick married his wife, Lauren, in 2014, and the couple have three children: an 8-year-old son named Odin and two daughters, 5-year-old Saoirse and 3-year-old Pearl.
“My children are my everything,” he explained in 2023. “If I lost everything—if I wasn’t a Backstreet Boy anymore, if I didn’t have the opportunity to still perform for people and entertain them—as long as they still had my kids and still had my family, I’d be okay. All this stuff on the outside doesn’t matter to me.”
Watch The Carters: Hurts to Love You Now
The Carters: Hurts to Love You premiered Tuesday, April 15, on Paramount+. According to the streamer, director Soleil Moon Frye received “unprecedented access” to the Carter family archives, including family photos, audio recordings, and private text messages for the two part-documentary.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
