Bobbie Jean Carter, the sister of pop stars Nick and Aaron Carter, was found unresponsive in her Florida bathroom on December 23, 2023. She was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead at age 41. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this family has dealt with tragedy.
The Carter family began with Jane and Bob Carter. They had five children: Nick, Bobbie Jean, Leslie, Aaron, and Angel. Sadly only Jane, Nick, and Angel are still alive today.
The Carters were a dysfunctional family plagued with substance abuse and all the downsides of fame. "We've had some very tough times," Bob stated to People in 2008. "There's a lot of pitfalls to growing up in the public eye.”
In 2003, Jane and Bob divorced. The following year, Jane was arrested and charged with battery after allegedly breaking into Bob’s home and beating up his then-girlfriend, Ginger Elrod. According to the Miami Herald the couple did not press charges but did get a restraining order.
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In January 2012, the first Carter sibling died. Leslie was 25 years old and a mother of one at the time of her death. She was found unresponsive at her Mayville, New York, home and declared dead at the hospital, much like her sister Bobbie Jean. Leslie’s cause of death was determined to be an overdose.
Aaron was especially impacted by his sister’s death because he had offered to get her the help she needed. "I wasn't really making that much money. Fortunately, I had just hit my bonus. I got $10,000 the week before Leslie died, and I actually had reached out to her two weeks before that and said, 'I'm going to get you the money to go to rehab,'" Aaron recalled in 2016 on Oprah: Where Are They Now? "She wanted it."
On May 16, 2017, Bob died of a heart attack. Despite estrangement, both Nick and Aaron posted tributes to their dad on social media. "[Aaron] had such a dysfunctional relationship with both parents, but something about losing his dad really threw him," a source close to the family told People in 2022. "That's when I saw him really start to spiral."
Before his 2022 death, Aaron attempted to get help. He went to rehab multiple times and was honest about his mental health and addiction struggles. Aaron was found dead in his bathroom in Lancaster, California. He accidentally drowned after taking sedatives and inhaling the gas difluoroethane.
Even though Nick eventually got clean, he also had his fair share of addiction and legal troubles. In 2002, he was arrested for fighting in a nightclub and in 2005 he was arrested for driving under the influence. He has been accused by multiple women of rape. In 2008, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition where the muscle is weakened.
Nick’s heart condition was the wake-up call he needed to get clean. "I don't want to die," he recalled thinking at the time. "I don't want to be that person people read about and think, 'That's sad that he couldn't stop it and killed himself.'"
