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Nick Carter Opens Up About His Sister’s Death On ‘DWTS’

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 12:46 PST, Nov 17, 2015

Nick Carter’s family suffered a huge blow when Leslie Carter, 25, died in 2012 of a drug overdose. Nick, the oldest of the siblings, who are mostly estranged from their parents, was always seen as the patriarch of the family. Well, the oldest sibling has now opened up about how his sister’s death affected him.

In a pre-taped segment for Dancing with the Stars, Nick opens up about his sister’s death, and how going through that turned his life around, as he also struggled with alcohol and drug abuse.

“There’s definitely a part of me that did blame myself. I think that’s because of the responsibility that I sort of took on as the oldest member in my family.”

As it turns out, his siblings blamed him for the death of their sister Leslie. Back in 2013, Carter was on the Dr. Phil Show to discuss the matter in order to open up about his family issues and to work through everything. He chose not to attend his sister Leslie’s funeral as a result of the blame that was placed on him.

“I started to get blamed by the rest of the family. They were blaming me for the death. I felt it was unfair, especially with all the things I have done and continue to do for them.”

“I love my family. But there comes a point when you really have to ask yourself if you are helping or hurting them.”

That said, not all ties are broken as the Backstreet Boy member said that he is still close with his brother Aaron, and took him to rehab when the time called.

As for his own demons, Carter said he took Vicodin and Ecstasy and that escalated. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with a heart condition called cardiomyopathy that helped him assess his situation.

After his performance on Dancing with the Stars, the star spoke with People magazine about the special moment where he opened up about his sister’s passing.

“I have been comfortable and happy to tell my story because I hope it can make a difference in somebody else’s life and inspire them to realize that they are not alone. They can overcome any trouble in their life. It’s been cathartic for me.”

As for his performance, Carter did mess up his footing, which he said was due to watching the packaged video that he taped. Carter said of experiencing the video right before he took the stage with ballroom dancer Sharna Burgess, “I feel like watching it it affected me a little bit. Sometimes it is a reality check to realize, ‘Oh my God. All these things did happen to me. I did go through these thing.”

He continued, “But things are going to happen in everybody’s life. I’m not special. I’m human and mistakes are going to happen. It’s how you react to those mistakes and how you overcome them that is important.”

So far, it seems like Nick Carter is having a great journey on Dancing with the Stars. Right now, he’s in a prime position to win it all, as he’s in the top four. It’s surprising to hear that he had some reluctance about going on the show, given that he’s such a good dancer. In fact, as it turns out, former NSYNC member and DWTS contestant Joey Fatone actually had to talk Nick into doing the show.

Fatone told the BSBer that he had to do it because in the end, it was a great experience. Despite being in a boy band for over 20 years, throughout the show Carter has had to overcome his esteem issues with his dancing, but it sounds like his hardest night was on his November 16 show.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]

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