ENTERTAINMENT
Bobbie Jean Carter, younger sister of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, dies aged 41
BJ is the third Carter sibling to have lost their life in the last 12 years, after Aaron and Leslie.
In the early hours of Saturday 23 December, Bobbie Jean Carter, the younger sister of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, died unexpectedly at the age of 41 in Florida. While her official cause of death has not yet come to light, her passing is the latest in a series of tragedies to have struck the Carter family, with Nick and Bobbie Jean’s brother Aaron, who was 34, found dead in his bathtub a little over a year ago. A coroner ruled he had “accidentally drowned after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam.”
The sad news was reported to TMZ by mother Jane: “I am in shock from learning of the sudden death of my daughter, Bobbie Jean; and I will need time to process the terrible reality of this happening for the third time.” Leslie Carter, the third of five children, also lost her life at the age of 25 in 2012 because of a prescription drug overdose.
BJ Carter’s daughter left orphaned
“When I am able to think clearly, I’ll release a fuller statement; but until then I would request to be left to grieve in private,” stated Jane. As well as three Carter siblings, Bobbie Jean’s partner also died, leaving her young daughter orphaned, adding to her mother’s devastation.
“However deeply a parent feels the loss of a child, the suffering of a young child at the loss of a parent must be much greater. So, I would ask the sympathetic to say a prayer for my precious eight year old granddaughter Bella, who previously lost her father and is now also left without her mother.”
Tragedy strikes the Carters after musical success
This latest tragedy is the third to strike the Carter family in a little over 10 years. As well as singers Nick, Aaron and Leslie, Bobbie, known as BJ to those closest to her, was also involved in the music industry at the peak of his brothers’ careers, serving as wardrobe stylist and makeup artist for Aaron while he was touring in the early 2000s.
However, like several of her siblings, years of addiction and substance abuse followed, while she also had a number of run-ins with the law and was arrested on a number of occasions, including as recently as this year.