Aaron Carter ‘Got Heavy Into Drinking’ After 2009 Dancing With The Stars Run

Former child star Aaron Carter recently joined Oprah: Where Are They Now to open up about his past with alcohol abuse.

In the episode that aired on Saturday, October 22, Aaron said that his life was first sent into a downward spiral when his parents, Robert and Jane, split in 2003.

“The depression was brought on because I loved my family being together. I did not want to see them divorced,” the 28-year-old singer said. “I couldn’t dwell on it. I couldn’t think about it too much. I kind of had to just block it out.”

In an effort to thwart his inner turmoil, Carter turned to partying as an escape. Eventually, he went broke and was forced to move in with his brother, Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, according to Us Weekly.

In the downtime, Carter worked on music in the guesthouse before he eventually got a call to join the cast of season 9 of Dancing With the Stars in 2009. The producers on the show tracked Aaron down by calling his cellphone number, which he had shared on Twitter with all of his followers.

After his stint on the wildly popular ABC series, Carter was once again motivated to pursue his music career. He hired music manager Johnny Wright, but he said that record labels didn’t want to work with him at all.

“[The record labels] just were not interested in me,” Aaron said. “They didn’t want to touch me, they didn’t want to do anything…Nothing ever came to fruition.”

Because of all the negative feedback he had been receiving from people in the music industry, Carter found himself drinking heavily.

“I started getting really heavy into drinking and was telling people, ‘I’m on a real bad path right now. I need help,’” he said.

Aaron’s mother came to his side and helped him check in for a month long stay in the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California back in 2011.

Since his stay in rehab, Aaron claims that he has been sober ever since, even despite the rumors going around that he was also a drug addict.

“I don’t want to always feel like I have to prove myself, but people put me in these positions, and that’s fine,” Carter said during an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the time.

Check out the interview with Aaron Carter in the video above.

What are your thoughts about Aaron Carter opening up about his past issues with alcohol?

[H/T Us Weekly]