Carey Hart opened up about stepping away from racing after the tragic death of his younger brother Anthony.
On a new episode of Special Forces, Hart, 49, said it’s “hard to put into words” how his brother’s death in 2008 impacted him and that it forced him to reconsider his priorities between racing and his family with Pink.
“I’ve always cherished family, and it’s kind of hard to put into words the impact, like the death of my brother was a really, really hard and long grieving period,” said Hart, who shares two children with the pop star.
“The mental impact for me is just trying to turn something that’s so negative into a positive and I’ve been able to refocus that on my children.”
Anthony was just 21 when he died in 2008. Like his brother, Anthony was a motocross rider and was preparing for a race when he crashed during a practice run at the Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut, New York, E! News reported at the time.
Hart said on Special Forces that the “hardest part” of mourning his brother was figuring out the logistics in the first weeks. “At that time, I owned a super moto team,” Hart explained. “My brother was racing for me, and unfortunately he had a crash on the track. He slid up the track and hit the guardrail head first and had a head injury.”
“I had to get my brother’s back. I had to plan the funeral. I had to call his mother like I had to do all this stuff and not miss a beat. And I think I unpack things over the next, you know, three or four or five years on my own time.”
During those years, Hart said he “made the decision to put competition secondary behind my family,” especially as his wife was heading out on tour. “I didn’t want to be away from my child,” he recalled.
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Hart revealed that the experience deeply affected his relationship with his father, who was a “huge support system when I was younger,” he said.
Pink and Hart got married in 2006 after dating for five years. The couple met in August 2001 at the X Games in Philadelphia.
Although they were estranged at the time of Anthony’s death, Pink quickly came to his side to offer her full support after the tragedy. PEOPLE reported at the time that Pink joined Hart in Las Vegas to celebrate the life of his brother. She sang and dedicated a song to Anthony, and Hart joined her to toast his memory.
They welcomed their first child together, Willow Sage Hart, on June 2, 2011. And on Dec. 26, 2012, the singer and racer welcomed their son, Jameson Moon Hart.
In 2021, the singer told PEOPLE, “We’ve really grown up together.”
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