AJ McLean Reveals He Helped Aaron Carter Check Into Rehab In 2017: ‘Shocked’ He Showed Up
AJ McLean made the revelation in Hulu’s upcoming documentary, ‘Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop’.
member revealed he once helped check into rehab in the trailer of Hulu’s upcoming documentary,. “2017, Aaron reached out to me, asked me for help. I said, ‘Look, if you get on a plane, come out to L.A., I will make sure you get into treatment,’” he recalled. “And he showed up. I was shocked, but I was happy, and he checked into a treatment center in Malibu.”
However, Aaron’s stay was short-lived. “A couple days later, I talked to him, and then he kind of went off the map,” the 45-year-old musician continued. “I think it was maybe two weeks, so I called my friends at the treatment center, and they said he checked himself out.” AJ had been a long-time friend of Aaron, as he was of his Backstreet Boys bandmate, .
As fans know, at the age of 35 in his California home in Nov. 2022 due to after he inhaled difluoroethane, a gas found in containers of compressed air that can make people high when inhaled, and took alprazolam, a generic form of Xanax. Aaron had struggled with mental health and substance issues for years and even spoke about getting his life back on track in 2017 during . “I took a break since 2017. I needed to go to rehab,” he explained. “I think I grew into the real, true, authentic version of myself. I went to rehab four times until I finally got it right.”
Earlier this month, Aaron’s team revealed they had tried their best to to become healthier before his sudden death. “Our team actively tried to implement a plan to rehabilitate a recovery to health, however, due to outside influences and triggering dysfunctional relationships, these circumstances made it a challenge,” they said in a statement to on April 19.
AJ has also struggled with his own substance abuse issues, which he opened up about in the documentary. “I was a functioning addict. I had been in and out of the rooms since 2001, so for 22 years I’ve been battling my own s$p63e8daf5d1bc8,” he admitted at the beginning of the trailer. “I , I almost lost my band, I almost lost my life. The last time I relapsed, which would be 18 months ago, my youngest daughter was kind of the nail in the coffin for me.”
“She said I didn’t smell like her dad. That was enough,” he recalled. “That pretty much did it for me and I have stayed sober since and I plan on staying sober. It’s a daily thing.”
Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop will debut on Hulu on May 1.