Drug problems, alcohol and a broken family: for a while it seemed like Nick Carter couldn't get the curve. The Florida American, who became the youngest member of the Backstreet Boys ("Larger Than Life") at the age of 13 in 1993, had to deal with the same problems that caused the crashes of so many teenage stars. However, the 40-year-old has defeated his demons for the time being – also thanks to his band family.
Meteoric rise with boy band phenomenon
The story of the world's most successful boy band sounds almost too good to be true. Two years after it was founded, Nick Carter, Brian Littrell (44), A.J. McLean (42), Howie Dorough (46) and Kevin Richardson (48) in 1995 released their first single "We've Got It Going On". The song and the associated self-titled debut album of the formation hit like a bomb, especially in Germany. A little later, "Quit Playin 'Games (With My Heart)" became the Backstreet Boys' first German number one hit and the five band members became celebrated teen stars.
Since the USA was dominated by grunge in the mid-1990s, the musicians were initially denied success in their homeland. From 1998, however, he also appeared and thanks to the Backstreet Boys, US teenagers also fell into the boy band hype. The five boys thrown together by businessman Lou Pearlman (1954-2016) in Orlando, Florida now lived in the fast lane. To date, the Backstreet Boys have released a total of nine studio albums and sold more than 130 million records worldwide.
Music colleagues as a family replacement
It was a blessing for Nick Carter to become part of the Backstreet Boys – not just financially. The star, who describes his band colleagues as brothers, comes from problematic family relationships. At the age of two, he first came into contact with alcohol in his parents' bar in Jamestown, New York, as Carter reveals in his 2013 autobiography "Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It".
The relationship between his parents Robert and Jane Carter, who later relocated the family to Ruskin, Florida and ran an old people's home there, was characterized by vocal and verbally violent disputes. At school, young Nick was bullied because he was often exempted from teaching for singing and acting castings. Many of his friends ended up in drug swamps or in prison.
His talent offered the eldest of five siblings a way out of the difficult family situation. As a member of the Backstreet Boys, the young star had four older boys at his side, who were by no means grown up yet, but offered him stability and support. Carter often said later that his band colleagues became his family at the time.
In particular the oldest member of the band, Kevin Richardson, who was nine years older, had shown him the right way – also by giving him the self-help book "Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results" in 2004 by pastor and author Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) in the hand.
Obtained by the past
For a long time, the 40-year-old could not escape the shadow of his childhood. The behavior he was shown by his parents regarding both substance abuse and relationship abuse led the teen star to fall for the seduction of show business. This resulted in alcohol and drug excesses and difficult relationships with his family members.
"I took ecstasy, cocaine, and drank a bottle of vodka in the evening," Nick writes in his book. His media-effective relationship with hotel heiress Paris Hilton (38) also caused a stir in 2003 and 2004. She even supported him in his wild party time, Carter continues.
It was only when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy almost seven years ago that the singer decided to completely change his life. It is a group of diseases that affect the heart muscle and, in the worst case, can lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Since then, Carter has slimmed down almost 30 kilos, keeps himself physically fit and eats healthy.
His family couldn't make the jump
The musician, who released his first solo album "Now or Never" in 2002, was able to help himself. But not to his siblings. Nick's younger sister Leslie died in 2012 from a drug overdose at the age of 25. The singer, who was now the mother of a daughter, had to struggle with psychological problems for a long time and allegedly suffered from a bipolar personality disorder. Her father, head of the family Robert Carter, in whose house she was found unconscious, also died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 2017 at the age of 65.
His little brother Aaron (32, "I'm All About You"), who became a child star in Germany in the 90s, has also been struggling with mental health problems and drug and alcohol addiction for years. Most recently, Nick and Aaron's twin sister Angel Conrad (32) each obtained an injunction against him, which is still valid until the autumn of this year. The "I Want Candy" hitmaker allegedly had threatened to kill his sister and Nick's wife, Lauren Kitt-Carter, 36, who was very pregnant at the time.
To protect himself, part-time actor Nick has been keeping his family at a distance for some time – which they disliked. In an interview with the American television psychologist Dr. Phil revealed the musician "People" in 2013 that his family blamed him for the death of his sister Leslie, accusing him of not being there for her. The artist has no contact with Brother Aaron, whom Nick personally drove to the rehab clinic in 2011. The relationship with his parents has always been difficult, which was evident several times in the family's reality show, "House of Carters".
Today he is a happy family man
Unlike most of his family members, Nick Carter now seems to have found the right path. With his wife Lauren, whom he gave the yes in 2014, he founded his own small family in 2016, which, unlike his father, he wants to run "with love" instead of "fear". The pop star emphasized this in his interview with Dr. Phil (69).
As the proud father of little son Odin (3) and daughter Saoirse (3 months), who gave birth to Lauren in October 2019 after suffering a miscarriage, Carter regularly posts cute photos and videos on Instagram. And they clearly show a happy nick, a star who has arrived in his new role – despite all the old demons and thanks to the support of his "Backstreet brothers".