How Angel Carter Is Breaking Her Family’s Cycle of Dysfunction

“We don’t call it preventing,” she said. “We call it early intervention for a reason, because if you start implementing change and healthy conversations within the home from a young age, and really listening to your children and being there for them—being physically, emotionally, spiritually present for your children—that’s all your kids want.”

One day, Angel said, when he’s the right age she’ll tell Prince “the truth, that Aaron was a happy soul and he was a good person.”

And she knows her nephew will learn the more upsetting truths about his whole family one day. “That’s just a given,” she said. “But I hope that he sees how important mental health is, and the vital work that we’re doing creating these healthy conversations, and that he sees the lesson in all of this.”

Ultimately, Angel added, “I want to show the children in my family—my daughter, my nieces and nephews—that these moments don’t have to define you.”

Instead they have plenty of happier memories to look back on. Check out some of the family’s best moments.