Anna Good
Singer Aaron Carter, 34, passed away in his California home on November 5, and there has been an outpouring of grief from friends, family, and fans alike. But sadly, as one can unfortunately expect of the world, there are those who decided to capitalize on the event of his passing.
The late singer had been working on a memoir with writer Andy Symonds for the past three years, and the book has been fast-tracked to be published as soon as next week. The memoir is titled “Aaron Carter: An Incomplete Story of an Incomplete Life,” to be published by Ballast Books.
Excerpts from the memoir have found their way to the internet, as these things do, and some of the excerpts obtained by the New York Post contain concerning details about the late singer’s teenage relationship with singer and actress Hilary Duff, who dated after Carter guest-starred on an episode of Lizzie McGuire. The pair broke up in 2003 after a messy situation with Carter cheating on Duff with Lindsay Lohan.
When she found out about Carter’s passing, Duff wrote a thoughtful message to the late singer in an Instagram post.
The memoir excerpt the New York Post shared reads, “Hilary and I lost our virginity to each other at a hotel…in LA. I think it was her birthday, maybe her 13th, but I don’t remember. Her friends walked in, and we just yelled at them to get out.”
Duff called out the publisher for being greedy in a time of mourning, saying, “To water down Aaron’s life story to what seems to be unverified clickbait for profit is disgusting. In no way do I condone shedding any light on what is so obviously an uninformed, heartless, money grab.”
She went on, “It’s really sad that within a week of Aaron’s death, there’s a publisher that seems to be recklessly pushing a book out to capitalize on this tragedy without taking appropriate time or care to fact check the validity of his work.”
A statement released by Carter’s team said, “We as Aaron’s management would like to thank Hilary Duff for her statement regarding the book that is set to be released. In the few short days following our dear friend’s passing, we have been trying to grieve and process while simultaneously having to deal with obscenely disrespectful and unauthorized releases, including an album titled ‘Blacklisted’, a single titled ‘Lately,’ and now a book.”
“This is a time for mourning and reflection, not heartless money grabs and attention seeking. We would ask the parties responsible to remove the aforementioned content and that no further content be released without approval from his family, friends, and associates,” the rep finished.
In a recent update, no doubt due to the pushback they’ve received, the publisher decided to delay the publication of the memoir, saying in a statement, “Out of respect for the Carter family, my client has decided to defer the further release of the book at this time.”