Angel Carter detailed the “extreme grief” of losing her twin brother, Aaron Carter, in a heartbreaking Instagram post on the pair’s 35th birthday.
The singer died just over a month shy of celebrating the milestone with Angel, who admitted to her followers on Wednesday that “today is incredibly tough.”
“Aaron dying was the worst day of my life,” she wrote, adding, “It feels like a piece of my soul is gone.”
According to Angel, she “tried everything” to help her troubled twin, revealing that the two spoke just “two days” before his Nov. 5 death.
“I begged, once again, for him to let us help,” she explained.
“I did not know that would be the last time that I would ever hear his voice. And now, I sit here on our birthday, trying to navigate this unimaginable loss because of untreated mental illness and the addiction that it led to.”
Though an official cause of death has not yet been determined, multiple cans of compressed air and prescription pill bottles were reportedly discovered in the bathroom where Aaron’s body was found.
He struggled with mental health issues and addiction for the majority of his life, even once claiming that his late older sister, Leslie Carter, was the person who introduced him to “huffing” when they were both teenagers.
In her post, Angel also reflected on losing Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in January 2012 at the age of 25.
“I remember feeling broken, confused, and I questioned how I was going to continue on without her in my life,” she recalled.
“And now, over a decade later, I am forced to once again deal with the extreme grief of the death of a sibling. This time, it’s my beloved twin, Aaron. We had an indescribable bond… and now… he is gone.”
Angel acknowledged feeling “too young to carry the weight of losing two of [her] siblings,” labeling both situations as “unfair.”
She recalled feeling “blindsided” when Leslie died but confessed that Aaron’s passing was less of a shock.
“And yet, despite all this pain, his passing has lit a fire within me,” Angel explained. “I feel a calling and responsibility to help other families and continue the conversation to further break the stigmas that surround mental illness.”
She then announced a benefit concert whose proceeds will all be donated to On Our Sleeves, an organization that provides free resources to help communities break child mental health stigmas and support children’s mental health.
The event, “Songs For Tomorrow,” will take place on Jan. 18 at Heart WeHo in West Hollywood, Calif. It will be co-hosted by Angel and *NSYNC’s Lance Bass and will feature a special performance by Angel and Aaron’s older brother, Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter.
“I have learned the pain never goes away and keep telling myself that it is one step at a time,” Angel concluded her post. “I am hoping you can join me for this crucial next step… in memory of Aaron.”
