Nick Carter Opens up About Coping With Brother Aaron Carter's Death

Nick Carter is opening up about grieving his brother Aaron Carter nearly a year after the "I Want Candy" singer's sudden death at 34. The Backstreet Boys singer, 34, revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight that he and his family are still processing the loss after Aaron passed away on Nov. 5, 2022, in a death that was ruled a drowning due to drug use and gas inhalation. 

"It's definitely been tough for me and my family," Nick told the outlet. "It is still something that we are still processing, to this day. I don't think we will ever really get over it." Nick previously paid tribute to his little brother two months after his death with his "Hurts to Love You" music video, which included photos and home movies of Aaron alongside the lyrics, "It hurts to love you but I love you still/ Miss you with all my heart, you know I always will."

To ET, Nick added of his family's efforts to remember Aaron, "It's been a lot for us, and we are finding ways to try and take a really tragic situation in our family and do something with it." Nick and his sister Angel Carter, who is Aaron's twin, have both gotten involved with On Our Sleeves, a foundation that works with children facing mental and emotional health struggles, in the aftermath of their brother's death.

"It's much easier to raise a strong child than to fix a broken adult," Angel told PEOPLE earlier this month. "Something positive has to come from all this. I refuse to allow Aaron to have died in vain." She added, "I want Aaron's legacy to be more than those final years of his life." Angel revealed that she thinks "the beginning of the end" for her brother was the loss of their father, Robert Carter, who died at 65 from a heart attack. 

After the death of their father, Aaron checked into rehab, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder. "Aaron was already in a bad place, but it was like a domino effect," Angel said, adding of her late twin, "He wanted so badly to be happy. He really fought to the end, but he just had too many problems to be fixed. He'd become this person who we no longer recognized. I don't even think he recognized himself."