Influencer Trisha Paytas is opening up about her relationship with the late Aaron Carter.
“Sean [van der Wilt] and Aaron went on tour together in China, like, 10 years prior,” Paytas, 38, recalled on the Tuesday, November 3, episode of the “We Need to Talk” podcast, referring to her breakup from van der Wilt, 46. “I thought, ‘I’m going to make him jealous. I’m going to be with Aaron Carter,’ and I DMed Aaron. We had met in, like, 2017.”
She continued, “I loved Aaron. I was such a fan. He’s my age, and my millennial heart, like, he was everything [and a] really nice guy; really, really sweet.”
According to Paytas, she tried “more hardcore drugs” while dating Carter, who died in November 2022 at the age of 34 following years of his own substance abuse struggles. (Paytas and Carter dated in 2017, later briefly reconciling after they “always kept in touch online.”)
“I talk about this so much. Like, all the addicts that were in my life, [were] the nicest, like, genuine, good people,” she told podcast host Paul Brunson. “They weren’t, like, these users. … It’s like, they’re genuine, good people. They just have a real sickness or real demons that they’re battling.”
As for her dynamic with the “I Want Candy” singer in particular, Paytas revealed they had a deep camaraderie.
“We were intimate sometimes, but it really was, like, a friendship,” the content creator acknowledged. “We would, like, DM each other, just [to] randomly keep up with each other on Twitter and stuff like that. He’s also chronically online and loved to be at home.”
Paytas added, “We, kind of, had a good friendship, which was cool. He just liked hanging out with me, and we’d watch, like, The Revenant and stuff, and he’d acted like [there was] a bear on him. He was, kind of, fun and goofy.”
Carter drowned in a bathtub due to the effects of difluoroethane and alprazolam, per the official coroner’s report. His death was ruled an accident. (Carter is survived by his son, Prince, whom he shared with Melanie Martin, as well as his mother, Jane, and his siblings Nick and Angel.)
“I think, unfortunately, his addiction kind of overshadowed his talent,” Paytas said. “But, he was very talented.”
Paytas explained that her kinship with Carter was also a “wake-up call” to stop using drugs.
“I’m fortunate that I wasn’t an addict. I think addicts I’ve seen, just experiencing around them, is, like, they don’t have the control,” she said. “Not to say I had control. I don’t have self-control in a lot of aspects of my life, but it really is, like, a sickness. There is a sickness in their eyes, like, they’re good people. No matter how much you love them or how much you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of scared,’ it’s just this thing that they can’t break, you know what I mean?”
Paytas is now married to Moses Hacmon, with whom she shares three children.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
