Photo: Instagram
The one-time child stars are trash-talking each other.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Nov 13, 2019
Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition premiered last week featuring both Corey Feldman and Aaron Carter. Both of them are trying to work out their relationships with their families, Carter with his mom and Feldman with his brother. While the show may seem like the last resort for participants clinging to fame, it does provide audiences with endless trainwreck TV-style entertainment. We have all the details on the Corey Feldman/Aaron Carter feud.
Both Carter and Feldman are coming into the season with a long history of substance abuse and rocky family relationships. While Feldman has gotten his life into a good place, Carter seems to be spinning out of control faster and faster. But if any viewers thought that Carter might turn to Feldman for empathy and mentorship, think again. Carter has been talking trash on social media and Feldman did it on camera during the show.
Why are Corey Feldman and Aaron Carter feuding? Read on for all the details.
1. Who is Corey Feldman?
Depending on how old you are, when you hear the name Corey Feldman you either remember a teen heartthrob from movies like The Goonies and The Lost Boys or you remember a drama-prone reality star from the Surreal Life and tabloid headlines. Feldman started acting movies as a child and was a household name during the 1980s. He had a friendship with Michael Jackson that he would later swear didn't involve sexual abuse, though he does claim to have been molested by other adults in his life. He was plagued by issues of addiction and is estranged from his parents after becoming an emancipated minor as a teen. In his adult years, he tried to recapture his fame on reality TV appearing on shows like The Surreal Life, The Two Coreys, Dancing On Ice and Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. He joined the cast of Marriage Boot Camp: Family Edition with his wife Courtney and brother Eden to work on his relationship with his brother in particular.
2. Who is Aaron Carter?
Aaron Carter started out his career mainly being known as the younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. Aaron had a promising musical career of his own, recording albums from the age of 9 and drawing in hordes of screaming fans to his concerts. Since his success, he has descended into a life of addiction and mental illness. His music career peaked in the early 2000s when he was about 16 years old and he has never been able to achieve the same level of success since then. He has done several stints in rehab for various addictions and recently appeared on the show The Doctors to talk about his serious mental health problems, which include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is on Marriage Bootcamp with his mother, whom he says is struggling with her own addiction to alcohol and he is attempting to repair his relationship with her.
3. Chaos follows Aaron
At the same time that Carter is baring his soul to WeTV audiences, his life is rapidly spiraling out of control offscreen. His brother Nick recently announced that he, his wife, and Aaron's twin sister Angel have all sought restraining orders against the singer. "After careful consideration, my sister Angel and I regret that we were required to seek a restraining order against our brother Aaron today,” tweeted Nick. "In light of Aaron's increasingly alarming behavior and his recent confession that he harbors thoughts and intentions of killing my pregnant wife and unborn child,” adding, “We were left with no choice, but to take every measure possible to protect ourselves and our family.” Aaron responded to the allegations by turning in several firearms to police and tweeting "Take care. @NickCarter we’re done for life. I haven’t seen him in four years. And I don’t intend to.”
Aaron Carter also contends that he was sexually abused by his older sister Leslie when he was 10 years old. In September he tweeted a set of now-deleted alarming statements, saying "It runs in the family. I never wanted to tell anyone this. But I have too [sic]…,” Aaron began in a series of tweets. “My sister Leslie suffered from bipolar and took lithium to treat it. She never liked the way it made her feel and when she was off of it she did things that she never meant to do I truly believe that. I was 10 years old…My sister raped me from the age of 10 to 13 years old when she wasn’t on her medications and I was absused [sic] not only sexually by her but by my first two back up dancers when I was 8 years old. And my brother absused [sic] me my whole life.”
The tweets so alarmed people close to Carter that they sent police to do a welfare check on him. Not long after that, Carter displayed brand new tattoos all over his face.
Carter's family is afraid of him.
4. "He screamed like a girl"
In the premiere episode of Marriage Boot Camp, the cast had to work together to find a key to get back into the house. Pieces of the key were hiding inside hollow logs that were also filled with things like bugs and maggots. The stars had to reach in blind and find the keys. Carter was not a fan of the challenge, telling the audience that he really hates bugs. "I would rather be bitten by a snake than touch a bug," he confessed. He was able to get the key eventually but not before freaking out about reaching into a maggot filled hole. As he struggled with the challenge, Feldman razzed him from the sidelines, yelling at him not to be a "little bitch." Later, Feldman and his wife Courtney laughed about how Carter screamed like a girl during the challenge.
5. Trying to be supportive
Feldman says trash talk is only a piece of what went down during the filming of the show. In an interview with US Weekly, Feldman shares how vulnerable and candid Carter was during the filming process. “I had many long talks with Aaron Carter, and so did my wife,” Feldman, said. “He confided a great many things in us." He added that Carter suffered a lot of abuse and trauma in his younger years and needs to heal from that now.
Feldman recalled one incident where Carter was sharing his feelings of being responsible for bad things that happened to his family. “I was sitting there and it was very genuine because it was like, ‘Here’s a guy who’s saying everything that I feel.’ I get it. Mom screwed you over, used you, abused you and what have you got to show for it? You just want to feel love, right? You just want to feel love. I totally could relate. My brother, Eden, could totally relate. My wife could totally [relate]. We were all just sitting there going, ‘Aw.’”
Feldman continued, “So I just went over and gave him a hug. But that said, from that moment on, I feel like he kind of clung to me and we kind of developed this brother-type relationship, which honestly, although I loved it, was also a bit hard because I was there to work on my relationship with my own brother.”
6. Turning on Feldman
If Feldman felt like he and Carter had a brother-type relationship, it must be similar to the brother relationship Carter has with Nick. In early October, Carter was tweeting serious trash against Feldman, saying "Corey Feldman! You’re a fucking fraud and a fake!! I’m not a push over little bitch I don’t need reality tv reality tv needs me this joker literally stole money using go fund me from his “fans” and didn’t expose shit! Corey WE GOT AN ISSUE BRUH." He doesn't explain what sparked the angry tweet, so it's not clear what this fight is really about.
Carter lashed out at Feldman.
Feldman hasn't answered the tweet directly but he says that he wishes nothing but the best for Carter. The rest of their drama will unfold on WeTV on Friday nights.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.