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Leslie Carter: 5 Things You Don't Know

Us Weekly – Thu, Feb 2, 2012 3:03 PM PST

Thoughts were with the Carter family when the news broke Wednesday that Nick and Aaron Carter's sister, Leslie Carter, had passed away suddenly. On Thursday a police document confirmed that the 25-year-old had died of a drug overdose in Mayville, NY.

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And while her brothers have had more experience in the spotlight (Nick, of the Backstreet Boys, is currently touring solo while Aaron is in NYC for The Fantasticks), Us Weekly tracked down a few things about Leslie that fans may have forgotten over the years.

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1. She had a hit single. Following in the footsteps of her vocal artist brothers, Leslie, then 14, signed a record deal with DreamWorks Records in 1999, right around the peak of both Nick's Backstreet Boys success and Aaron's solo career. After releasing her single, "Like Wow!" (which appeared on the Shrek soundtrack and reached #15 on the Hot 100 chart), she was set to release a debut album by the same name, but it later got canceled.

2. She wrote her own songs. Leslie demoed an acoustic version of a ditty she wrote during an episode of House of Carters where she crooned in front of her brothers. "I think you're an incredible writer," Nick said.

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3. She was a reality star. Riding the wave of the reality TV boom, the Carter siblings (including Nick, Aaron and his twin sister Angel, Leslie and their older sister Bobby Jean), starred in E!'s House of Carters. The show, which ran for eight episodes, documented the family trying to reconnect.

4. Family mattered to her. Being the first in her immediate family to tie the knot and have a baby, Leslie married Mike Ashton in September 12, 2008 and gave birth to their daughter, Alyssa Jane, on April 1, 2011.

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5. She suffered from neglect, anxiety and self-esteem issues. Leslie made it apparent during episodes of House of Carters, when on numerous occasions voiced her emotional turmoil over her parents, Bob and Jane, and how they treated her. In one episode, Leslie details how Jane had sent her to "fat camp" after her music career didn't take off. "She told me I was going to a summer camp. I felt like I was thrown away. I want to be looked at as a good person -- not as an angry person."

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All Comments

2 comments

JohnD • Issaquah, Washington • 3 months ago
Typical "I feel sorry for myself" of american . I see it everywhere I go. Parents raise their kids to feelsorry for themselves all the time. All they have to do is look around them and see how fortunate they are to live in the USA where you can make it on your own without much help. Exceptions would be children with really monster or really evil parents.
MaryU • 3 months ago
While we are only getting the "take" of Leslie Carter on her childhood and young adult life, my heart goes out to her parents. If they in any way deliberately ignored her personal or spiritual needs they will have to live it for the rest of their lives. My heart also goes out to her husband and young daughter. She HAD to have been at THE lowest point of her life to chose death over a husband and daughter. Before any more tradgedies strike this or any other family I hope all of them will get together and address the things that are keeping them apart. Nothing excedes the loss of a child. It doesn't matter how old the "child" gets, when your the parent they are ALWAYS your baby.