In March, ID made headlines with “Quiet on Set,” its deep dive into the darker side of children’s television. Now the network is diving into ’90s and 2000s pop culture again with “Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter.”
Stories accusing Nick Carter of sexual assault have been around since 2017, the year that Radar Online obtained a police report accusing the pop star of assaulting a 20-year-old fan at a house party and that Melissa Schuman wrote a blog about her alleged assault online. “Fallen Idols” interviews two of his alleged victims — Schuman and Ashley Repp — as well as his ex-girlfriend Kaya Jones as it parses through these allegations and how they impacted Nick and Aaron Carter’s relationship.
Here are some of the most shocking allegations from the first two episodes of the ID series, which is currently available to stream on Max. Carter has maintained that these sexual encounters were consensual and turned down ID for an interview.
Melissa Schuman says Nick Carter “did not listen to me” when she told him no
“Fallen Idols” starts with the account of Melissa Schuman, a former member of the girl group Dream. Schuman said that when she was still part of Dream, the label wanted someone from the group to date a member of Backstreet Boys and that Carter was interested in her. The feelings weren’t mutual at the time. The two didn’t become close until Schuman pursued a solo career and they starred together in the TV movie “The Hollow.”
Schuman’s account of the 2003 night in question aligns with the account of another accuser. According to her, Carter supplied Schuman with alcohol before pulling her away from a party. He performed oral sex on her against her wishes before pressuring her to have sex with him.
“He did not listen to me, despite the fact that I resisted and told him no,” Schuman said in the docuseries. She also said that Carter only stopped sexually assaulting her when he asked her, “You’re not enjoying this, are you?”
“I said, ‘No,’ and that’s when he got off me,” Schuman said.
Schuman stated that night “completely changed the course of my life.” For his part, Carter maintains that his sexual encounter with Melissa was consensual and his friend Tony Bass supports his account.
After the encounter, Nick Carter sent Schuman a text that “freaked me out”
After the 2003 incident, Schuman told her mom what happened but largely tried to put the encounter behind her. She described it as a “bad dream.” What shook her back to reality was a text she received from Carter, which read, “Why did you make me do that?”
“That text message freaked me out,” Schuman said.
Schuman believes Carter’s duet with her was “an alibi”
When it comes to Schuman’s story, there’s one detail Carter’s defenders often point to: “There for Me.” The 2004 single was released after he allegedly assaulted Schuman and while Carter was dating Paris Hilton.
At the time, Schuman was trying to get her solo career off the ground and signed with Kenneth Crear, not knowing how close Crear was to the Carter family. Crear suggested that Schuman sing on “There for Me,” an opportunity Schuman said she took to help her career and because she was assured she wouldn’t have to perform in person with Carter.
“In reality, it feels more like an alibi for him,” Schuman said.
Though Schuman never saw Carter for the single, she did perform with him for her Sony Records showcase. This was again Crear’s idea. Schuman recalled that she never looked at him during the showcase and that Carter’s last words to her were, “Well, clearly we don’t like each other.” Sony later said it wasn’t interested in working with Schuman, citing that she was vocally weak.
Schuman describes the backlash she received as “strategic” and “targeted”
The former member of Dream later opened up in depth about her assault in 2017. Schuman cited the #MeToo movement as contributing to her decision to write about what happened. However, she also described the backlash she’s received from Carter’s fans as “hell on Earth.”
“This is not normal,” Schuman said. “It was strategic. It was purposeful. It was targeted.”
In the wake of her accusations against Carter, Schuman has been doxxed and attacked online. One of the best known critics of her has been a YouTuber by the name of Molly Golightly, who said she spent three nights with Carter. Molly Golightly’s account is no longer available on YouTube.
Kaya Jones says that Carter would “punch walls” when they were together
After Schuman posted her story, two unexpected celebrities reached out to her. The first was Kaya Jones, the former member of the Pussycat Dolls, who dated Carter from 2004 to 2005. Schuman said that Jones was “so kind” to her and that she immediately believed her.
While Jones maintained that Carter was never physically violent with her, she said that he punched walls while arguing with her. She also said that Carter once broke her phone and described his outbursts as “like a temper tantrum, like a child.” Jones has long maintained that Carter was “very good at getting in your head.”
“Don’t lie, Nick. I’m no longer keeping your secrets,” Jones said in Episode 2. “Do I believe that something horrific happened to that girl? Yes. Yes I do.”
Jones says that Carter became “very nasty” when she turned him down sexually
While Jones and Carter were dating, Jones recalled that she once found Carter watching porn alone. When she asked him to turn it off repeatedly, he refused. Though she didn’t go into specifics like the other two women interviewed for “Fallen Idols,” Jones became emotional while retelling how Carter asked her to do something that was “crossing the line too far for me.” After she refused, Carter became “very nasty very quickly.”
“That, to me, was like, I cannot be with this person,” Jones says.
Carter repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old when he was 23
The Ashley Repp case is a difficult one. Repp befriended Nick’s sister and Aaron Carter’s twin Angel in the 2000s. While their parents were going through their divorce in 2004, Angel invited Repp to join her at the Carter estate in the Florida Keys. Repp described the Florida property as a nonstop, booze-fueled party.
One day, the group took a boat out into open water. While they were swimming in the ocean, Carter pulled Repp away from the rest of the group and started to kiss her. Both were heavily intoxicated, and Repp said that she was so drunk she was “out of my mind” and described Carter as “sloppily drunk.”
“We ended up having sex. I was just so uncomfortable, and I just remember thinking that it hurt,” Repp recalls. “I was like, ‘Wow, I feel really, really, really stupid.’”
The two allegedly had sex repeatedly during this trip and the one that followed. When Repp eventually filed a police report against Carter, she admitted to authorities that she told Carter she was 18 when she was really 15 and that she never explicitly said “no.” Because of that, charges were not pursued.
“I was 15, and I was embarrassed. I didn’t understand the magnitude,” Repp said of the report.
Carter allegedly let his friends watch him sexually assault Repp
The incident that led to Repp filing a police report happened during her second visit to the Keys. Once again, Repp found herself drunk and on a boat with Carter. She said that this time, she was so intoxicated that she didn’t have control of her body. She said that Carter picked her up and “didn’t seem to care” as he took her to the boat’s bedroom.
Repp said she was “adamantly, vocally against” the encounter. As they were having sex, she heard people laughing above her. That’s when she realized that the skylight hatch in the bedroom was open and that Carter’s friends were watching them. Repp says she was too drunk to notice them right away.
“I was just so embarrassed,” Repp said.
Aaron Carter reached out to Schuman
The second celebrity who reached out to hear Schuman’s account was Nick Carter’s own brother, Aaron Carter. Aaron reached out to Schuman on Twitter and asked her to call him. According to the docuseries, he said, “You’re not the first person this has happened to with him. He did this to another girl named Ashley.”
Repp said that Aaron Carter also told her something similar when she told him what happened to her. “He did not have a great relationship with his brother at that time because of what he said were other similar events with his brother and younger girls,” Repp said in Episode 2.
Episodes 3 and 4 of “Fallen Idols” premiere on ID Tuesday at 9/8c p.m. They will stream on Max Wednesday.