Aaron Carter's Twin Sister Opens Up About Her Intense Heartbreak Over His Tragic Death & Estrangement From Their Mother

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

Aaron Carter‘s twin sister is recalling her family’s troubling and difficult past, and the shocking and tragic death of her beloved brother.

This week, Angel Carter (pictured above, inset, with Aaron during happier times) is featured in People with a new mag story about her fractured family. And on Wednesday morning, prior to the issue’s forthcoming release at the end of the week, the outlet published part of the heartbreaking interview online.

In it, the 35-year-old grieving sister recalled how she and her brother were put in a “toxic” situation right from the very beginning of their lives. With both parents abusing alcohol, according to Angel, the twins were pushed to succeed in the entertainment industry at all costs:

“Fame and money took over our family. … Our childhood was filled with emotional abuse, dysfunction, and addiction.”

Ugh.

Of course, Aaron’s spiral into drug abuse and addiction has been very well-documented. But Angel says two things specifically made it worse: the 2012 overdose death of Aaron’s 25-year-old sister Leslie, and the 2017 heart attack death of their 65-year-old father, Robert.

Angel explained those two deaths in just five years’ time sent Aaron reeling:

“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.”

And despite rehab stays and medical professionals on hand to help at various points, Aaron wasn’t able to escape the chaos.

Angel delivered a crushing quote about watching Aaron’s demise play out on social media videos over the last several years of his life before his death last November at just 34 years old:

“I just kept waiting for him to snap out of it. But he never did.”

So, so sad…

Angel added:

“He wanted so badly to be happy. He really fought to the end, but he just had too many problems to be fixed. He’d become this person who we no longer recognized. I don’t even think he recognized himself.”

Angel also has other issues to focus on — namely with the twins’ mother Jane Schneck. Back in March, Jane unexpectedly released photos of Aaron’s death scene. Along with it, she insisted on social media that Aaron had been receiving death threats and was convinced there was a deeper conspiracy at play regarding his passing.

For Angel, that moment was crushing for several reasons — chief among them the “true invasion of privacy” Jane pushed into the world:

“It was a true invasion of privacy and something that Aaron would’ve never wanted the public to see. Aaron dying was the worst possible outcome for all of us. My brother deserves to be here.”

According to People, Angel has not spoken to her since that day.

Now, the grieving sister and her husband are trying to break what she calls a “generational” cycle of mental health issues. She has teamed up with a non-profit called On Our Sleeves in a bid to get more children better access to mental health services early in life.

She explained:

“[We want to] 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. Something positive has to come from all this. I refuse to allow Aaron to have died in vain.”

And she concluded with her ultimate goal:

“I want Aaron’s legacy to be more than those final years of his life.”

Amen to that.

Sending love and hugs to Angel and the rest of those still grieving Aaron’s heartbreaking death.

If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.

If you or someone you know is experiencing substance abuse, help is available. Consider checking out the resources SAMHSA provides at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline or check out StartYourRecovery.org.

[Image via MEGA/WENN]