Nick Carter Responds To Arrest For Battery Just Weeks After Placing Second On ‘Dancing With The Stars’
The reigning Dancing With the Stars runner-up and former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter returned to Twitter Saturday after a nearly two-week absence. Carter’s last social media activity had been January 12. The following day a report emerged on Entertainment Tonight that Carter had gotten into a bar altercation in Key West, Florida, that resulted in his arrest for a misdemeanor count of “battery, touch or strike.”
TMZ reported at the time that the incident happened inside a saloon in Florida where Carter was involved in a “scuffle.” When police took Carter into custody, they listed his occupation as “none,” which led TMZ to quip that “[e]ither [Carter] was really humble during his arrest… or the Key West officers just aren’t BSB fans.”
Carter broke his social media silence by making indirect reference to the incident. For a musician who has a long history of substance issues, there is much to chew on in the few words of Carter’s two tweets. He speaks directly to his fans.
I am human and at times it can be a struggle to balance a healthy lifestyle. I’m not perfect and for that I am sorry.
— Nick Carter (@nickcarter) January 23, 2016
When we fall we have to get up and keep on walking. I hope you stay by my side and continue to walk with me.
— Nick Carter (@nickcarter) January 23, 2016
As ET recalled, Carter was open during his Dancing With the Stars tenure about his struggle with drugs and alcohol and his choice to get clean. He told ET he realized he wanted to turn around his unhealthy habits while looking at his reflection.
“I was able to look in the mirror at one point and said to myself, ‘I don’t want to be that person that you turn on the television and they’re saying, we feel really bad because he died.'”
Carter is now happily married to long-time girlfriend Lauren Kitt. The couple is expecting a baby boy in the Spring — a fact revealed live during Dancing With the Stars. Although the couple knew they were expecting, they put the revelation of the baby’s gender into the hands of producers, who surprised them on-set with a gift box filled with blue balloons.
Happy Holidays from our family to yours! pic.twitter.com/uexQTHWjDy
— Nick Carter (@nickcarter) December 25, 2015
This was not the first time Carter had discussed his past substance abuse. A People article in February, 2009, revealed Carter, then 29, had a wake-up call after receiving a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle.
Although Carter did not win Dancing With the Stars, he showed good sportsmanship by congratulating winner Bindi Irwin — according to the Entertainment Weekly recap, Carter called the wildlife activist “deserving” of the mirror ball trophy. EW noted that Irwin’s extraordinary season had meant the trophy had been hers to lose all season, so in many ways the deck was stacked against Carter to win it all.
As Carter snagged second place on Dancing With the Stars and looked forward to a new baby, he also teased a new album. All American, a solo project, was released last November. A blog post also said Carter planned to begin a tour in February 2016. He currently has scheduled dates starting on February 24, 2016.
[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment]
