Aaron Carter's Twin Sister Angel Opens Up About His Addiction: 'My Brother Deserves to Be Here' (Exclusive)

Angel Carter is opening up about her family's “painful” past — and the unexpected death of her twin brother Aaron Carter.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, the 35-year-old recalled how her parents abused alcohol and created a toxic family dynamic that ultimately worsened when her brothers Nick and Aaron were launched into stardom as kids.

“Fame and money took over our family,” says Angel, noting that the pressure took a toll on Aaron until he fell into addiction.

Aaron’s spiral — already evident in a handful of arrests for driving under the influence and drug possession — was exacerbated by the 2012 overdose death of his 25-year-old sister, Leslie, who struggled with a range of mental health issues, and his dad Robert Carter’s sudden death from an apparent heart attack in 2017 at age 65. 

“I always felt like that was the beginning of the end,” says Angel. “Aaron was already in a bad place, but it was like a domino effect.”

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Following the death of his father, Aaron checked himself into rehab where physicians diagnosed him with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. 

During her brother's final, chaotic years, Angel watched helplessly as he live-streamed increasingly disturbing videos of himself, surrounded by guns and inhaling compressed gas from canisters of air while telling his fans how his family and others were plotting to kill him. 

“I just kept waiting for him to snap out of it,” says Angel, fighting back tears. “But he never did.”

“He wanted so badly to be happy,” she continues. “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.”

Aaron died on Nov. 5, 2022 at the age of 34. 

In March, their mother Jane Schneck bizarrely released photos of Aaron’s death scene, insisting that her son had been receiving death threats and accusing authorities of dismissing her suspicions a month before officials ruled his death a result of drowning due to ingesting drugs and inhaling gas.

“It was a true invasion of privacy and something that Aaron would’ve never wanted the public to see,” says Angel, who hasn’t spoken to her mother since. “Aaron dying was the worst possible outcome for all of us. My brother deserves to be here.”

Angel, her husband, and a few close friends were finally able to lay Aaron to rest, holding a memorial service on July 28, burying his ashes in a Los Angeles cemetery. Now, Angel is determined to have something good come from the tragic death of her brother, who, along with his four siblings struggled to overcome the trauma they endured growing up. 

“Our childhood was filled with emotional abuse, dysfunction and addiction,” she says. 

In an effort to break what she calls the “generational” cycle, Angel’s teamed up with the children’s mental health organization On Our Sleeves. According to the CDC, one in five children has an impairing mental disorder—but less than half get the treatment they need. 

Angel 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 adds. “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 says.

For the full story on Angel Carter, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, on subscribe here.