Angel Carter Conrad has made shocking accusations about being neglected by her parents while her famous brothers, Nick and the late Aaron, were off being pop stars.
In the new two-part Paramount+ documentary, The Carters: Hurts to Love You — directed by former child star Soleil Moon Frye — Angel detailed life growing up with two famous brothers and a family plagued by mental illness and addiction struggles.
As Nick skyrocketed to fame with the Backstreet Boys and Aaron started carving out a career of his own, Angel said she and her sisters — the late Leslie and BJ — were often left to fend for themselves without parental guidance.
The siblings’ mom, Jane Carter, refused to be interviewed for the new documentary. The Independent has reached out to her for comment.
Angel said she was 13 the first time she was left “completely” on her own.
“Aaron was on tour, Nick was already gone with the Backstreet Boys all the time,” she shared in the new documentary. “At that point, I have no idea where my sisters were.”
She recalled being “left on a tour bus for a month with a man.”
“I was really uncomfortable around him because he tried to sexually assault me,” an emotional Angel alleged. “So I knew what he was capable of, and my parents left me with him on the tour bus. And my dad told me just to keep the doors locked at night.
“To be a child and to not feel safe in your own home, and to not have your parents to go to, was really hard,” she said.
Lori Knight, Aaron’s former tour manager, was left to try to help the other Carter siblings while simultaneously managing the pre-teen’s budding career.
Knight recalled receiving a phone call while on the road with Aaron from a distraught Angel who had been left alone by her dad, Bob, without any money.
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“She was crying, she was hungry, she was like, ‘I don’t have shampoo to wash my hair,’” Knight said in the documentary.
“It was gut-wrenching,” she continued. “How can a dad leave his children — his minor children — to just fend for themselves?”
“They just didn’t pay a lot of attention to her because she wasn’t in show business,” Knight continued, noting it was largely the same for sisters Leslie and Bobbie Jean, both of whom have since died.
Leslie died in 2012, aged 2,5 from an overdose. Bobbie Jean, known by her siblings as BJ, died in 2023 at age 41, also from an overdose. Aaron died in November 2022 at age 34. His death was ruled accidental after he was found drowned in his bathtub.
The Carter siblings’ father, Bob, died from a heart attack in 2017. Jane Carter has been arrested twice in the last 22 years. In a January 2004 incident, she allegedly broke into Bob’s home and physically attacked her ex-husband’s then-girlfriend, Ginger Elrod, with a remote control. Charges weren’t pressed.
Then, in 2023, just months after Aaron’s death, Carter allegedly attacked a man with a remote control in her home. There was a no information verdict due to “victim/witness issues,” according to court documents viewed by The Independent, and the case was closed.
Nick and Angel are the only two surviving Carter siblings. They speak about the impact of the premature losses of their brother and sisters, as well as how they’re moving forward, in the new documentary, streaming now on Paramount+.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
