Nick Carter Recalls Learning How Brother Aaron Died: 'It's Still Unbelievable'

The Backstreet Boys member looked back on that fateful day in 2022 in Paramount+'s The Carters: Hurts To Love You, when he learned his younger brother had died after an accidental drowning after inhaling a generic form of the drug Xanax.

"I'll never forget, you know, being in London at the time when it happened and getting the text message," Nick recalled. "It's still unbelievable to this day."

Nick, who also lost sister Leslie Carter prior to Aaron's death, in 2012, and later, sister Bobbie Jean Carter, in 2023 -- both to drug overdoses -- said he hadn't "even had the chance to grieve" when Aaron passed.

Reflecting on the painful memory alongside his surviving sister, Aaron's twin, Angel Carter Conrad, the pair discussed the "generational cycle" instilled upon them by their parents, late father Bob Carter -- who died in 2017 -- and mom Jane Schneck.

"Our parents don't define us," Nick told Angel in the documentary. "You know that. Unfortunately, B.J., Aaron and Leslie, they did not know that. They had no idea that they could get out. They didn't deserve it."

Though the 45-year-old -- who has been accused of sexual assault for the fourth time in a recent legal filing, though his lawyers deny the claim -- wondered how much his boyband fame played a part in the difficulties his late siblings experienced.

"Sometimes I feel like it was my fault, you know, because I started it all," he explained. "You guys weren't even 18 years old. You couldn't escape. You couldn't get out of there."

Angel, meanwhile, told PEOPLE, that she's determined to keep Aaron's memory alive, and that of her other late siblings by shedding a light on childhood trauma.

In an effort to break that "generational" cycle, Angel’s teamed up with the children's mental health organization On Our Sleeves, and says her work with the organization will help break "the stigma surrounding mental health and not being able to talk to children about how they're feeling."

"It's much easier to raise a strong child than to fix a broken adult," she said. "Something positive has to come from all this. 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," Angel said.

The Carters: Hurts To Love You is streaming now on Paramount+.