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Soleil Moon Frye knew Aaron Carter when he was just a teenager. “He was just this vivacious, bubbly, bright, beautiful light,” she says of the late singer.
When she met Angel Carter Conrad, Aaron’s twin, a few years ago, they connected quickly.
“She had already lost two of her siblings and her father, and in the process of our journey, lost her third sibling,” Frye says. “From the moment that I met her, I was blown away by her courage, her strength, her grace, her love and her beautiful heart. And I really wanted to create a safe space for her to share her story. And I remember saying to the team, ‘If you let me make a documentary that, at its core, is around mental health awareness and addiction told through this incredible, moving story of Angel and the tragedies that her family had gone through, I’m all in.’”
In Paramount+’s upcoming documentary, “The Carters: Hurts to Love You,” she does just that. The Carter family currently consists of Angel and her older brother Nick Carter. Their other three siblings, Leslie Carter, Bobbie Jean and Aaron, all died between 2012 and 2023 from drug-related causes. In 2017, their father, Robert Carter, died from a heart attack.
A still of Aaron, Angel, Nick, Leslie and Bobbie Carter featured in “The Carters,” streaming on Paramount+, 2025. Photo Credit: Carter Family Archive/Courtesy of CBS/Paramount+
Angel Conrad/Courtesy of CBS/Paramount+
The documentary reveals past home videos that show child abuse the Carter children endured. Jane Carter, Angel and Nick’s mother, declined to be interviewed for the doc.
“We reached out and she didn’t respond. And at the same time, something that struck me so deeply was the incredible love that Angel has for her parents and that she really understood and felt that they did the best with the tools that they had,” Frye says. “She really wants to break that generational cycle. I think so many of us have past generational trauma that gets passed down. She really wanted to break that cycle for her own daughter, for Aaron’s son, and for Nick’s kids. So, something that was profound to me was really how protective she wanted to be of her parents.”
Frye watched hours of archival footage and while she was focused on telling Angel’s story, “there were so many parts of it that related to my own experiences,” she says. “I felt like I was watching the story of so many people. This is such a universal story to tell through their lens, because we are facing such a crisis in this world and globally around mental illness and addiction, and I really believe there’s never been a more important time to share this story. That was really important to me, to illustrate it through the home videos to show the pain and then to also show the love that was there.”
Frye hadn’t met Nick until making the documentary. She and Angel went to Chicago where he was performing and went to visit him during rehearsals. While he didn’t do an interview, per se, she captured two unexpected conversations on that trip.
“They came to the room and sat down and just started sharing with each other. All I had with me as far as a camera was my iPhone, and I just started documenting it. The way that unfolded, it was never meant to be an interview. It was them just sharing their childhood experiences and then it became very clear to me that this was the first time that he had ever spoken about the loss of his brother,” Frye says. “The following day, they came together and had this incredibly profound conversation, and allowed me to document it. It was always Angel’s journey, and Nick was a part of her journey.”
The documentary does not include any of the sexual assault allegations made against Nick, all of which he’s denied.
“The film I set out to make is told from Angel’s point of view. It’s her truth and her journey. The fame and fortune that followed came faster than she or her family could fully process, and the story captures what they faced as it all began to unravel,” Frye says of the choice not to include the claims. “Angel was looking through the lens of mental health — about recognizing the signs early on. You don’t have to be famous to feel the pressure and angst that so many young people experience. It’s important to have those conversations — and to keep having them.”
She continues, “Angel wants people to understand how early the wheels began to fall off the bus for the kids. Why did no one see what was happening? Why didn’t anyone reach out to help? For her, it all went back to the money. This was Angel’s story to tell. When you’re young and famous – the world sees you as an idol – no one sees your pain. That’s what she wants people to understand. That is her focus.”
“The Carters: Hurts to Love You” is executive produced by James Goldston, Steven Baker, Cynthia Childs, Soleil Moon Frye, Susan Zirinsky and Terence Wrong; Aysu Saliba and Cara Tortora are supervising producers.
The two-part documentary premieres on Tuesday, April 15 on Paramount+.
