How The Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean reunited with estranged father after decades

AJ McLean finally reunited with his long-lost father.

Speaking to Page Six Monday night at The Grove’s annual tree lighting celebration in Los Angeles, the Backstreet Boys frontman opened up about his experience while undergoing mental health therapy and how it helped him seek out his father, Bob McLean.

After the boy band wrapped up their world tour in May, the 45-year-old singer took off to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he “spent 10 weeks doing an intensive outpatient program for past trauma, PTSD, depression, and anxiety.”

The I Want It That Way singer, who has been sober for two years, said that he needed to “get to the root” of his issue.

Though he remained tight-lipped about what the issues were or how he overcame them, the musician admitted that the experience was “the catalyst” that prompted him to reach out to his father whom he hadn’t seen since he was three years old.

McLean reflected that he had heard about his father from his mother, uncle, and other family members, but he “wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

Ending on a humble note, McLean noted, “Hopefully, if I make mistakes, learning from them. I’m not perfect. I don’t want to be perfect. Nobody is.”