BROKEN HEART LED TO NICK CARTER’S ARREST FOR DUI

Backstreet Boy Nick Carter could use a backseat driver! He was busted on drunk-driving charges March 5 — and pals say a broken heart has triggered his boozing.

The handsome singer was pulled over in Huntington Beach, Calif., at 7: 40 p.m. after cops say he was driving erratically. And when police asked him to walk a straight line, he “was waddling like a duck,” divulged a friend who was with him during the arrest.

Carter, 25, has been drinking heavily ever since he checked out of his relationship with Paris Hilton last July, say sources.

“He still hasn’t gotten over her,” revealed the friend of the babyfaced Backstreeter. “It crushed him! He begged her to get back together, but she wanted to continue to play the field.”

FAILED SOBRIETY TEST
Huntington Beach parking lot attendant Mike Bailey witnessed the DUI bust.

Nick was wearing a white T-shirt and long blue-and-yellow basketball shorts.

“His hair was disheveled and he looked very wasted,” Bailey told The ENQUIRER.

“Nick appeared to be so drunk he couldn’t make it through the field sobriety test.

“The cops asked him to stand on one foot, and he nearly fell right over!”

Sgt. Mike Kelly of the Huntington Beach Police Dept. confirmed to The ENQUIRER: “After failing a field sobriety test, he was taken into custody and booked.

“We held him about three to four hours, and he was released on his own recognizance.”

The singer’s spokeswoman Juliette Harris told The ENQUIRER: “Nick Carter deeply regrets the current situation.

“He is on doctor-prescribed medication and was unaware of its interaction possibilities.”

— MICHAEL GLYNN