Nick Carter is still struggling to process his brother Aaron Carter's death.
Nick Carter is still struggling to process the death of his younger brother Aaron
The pop singer was found dead in his bathtub in November 2022 at the age of 34 and now Backstreet Boys star Nick, 43, has reflected that almost exactly a year on from the tragedy that he still "hasn't made sense" of it but remains hopeful that he will be able to do so one day.
He told E! News: "It's still unbelievable to me. I'm still processing the whole situation and trying to make sense of it—because it hasn't. But I'm hoping that one day I can make sense of it all."
The 'I Want Candy' singer - who shot to fame as a child and made multiple appearances on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel in his teenage years - was found submerged in a bathtub after inhalation of compressed gas and intake of alprazolam, which is a general term for Xanax.
But Nick - who has son Odin, seven, Saoirse, four, and two-year-old Pearl with wife Lauren Kitt - went on to describe his children as his "everything" and admitted that if his fame as part of the 'Everybody' hitmakers alongside Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson suddenly disappeared then he would be able to cope as long as his family was still by his side.
He said: "My children are my everything. 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 OK. All this stuff on the outside doesn't matter to me."
Nick had a strained relationship with his younger brother over the years but was quick to pay a moving tribute to him on the day after his death.
Alongside a series of throwback photos, he wrote on Instagram: "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. "I have always held onto the hope, that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss.
"But the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here.
"I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you Chizz.
"Now you get a chance to finally have some peace you could never find here on earth.
"God, please take care of my baby brother. (sic)"
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