'Fallen Idols': Dream's Melissa Schuman Reveals Why She Came Forward With Nick Carter Rape Allegations

The former Dream singer speaks out about the alleged assault in ID's 'Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter.'

By Anna Rumer

Dream alum Melissa Schuman is opening up about going public with her rape allegations against Nick Carter after the Backstreet Boys singer allegedly assaulted her in 2003. Schuman speaks out in the new Investigation Discovery docuseries Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, which premieres across two nights on Monday, May 27, and Tuesday, May 28.

Schuman first alleged publicly in a 2017 blog post that Carter had raped her in 2003 at his home in Santa Monica while they were working together on The Hollow. Schuman's allegations came amid the #MeToo movement, as she revealed in a preview she felt compelled to write down her experience in a post, but struggled to share it. "I didn't publish it. And I sat on it, I deleted it at one point. And finally, one night I was triggered," said Schuman, who married husband Brandon Henschel in 2006. "My husband looks at me and goes, 'Melissa. You cannot continue to live this way.'"

Schuman told her husband she couldn't bring herself to publish the post, at which point, "He said, 'Do you need me to?' And I said, 'Yeah.'" 

Carter has long maintained their encounter was consensual and is currently countersuing Schuman and another woman who has accused him of sexual assault named Shannon Ruth of taking advantage of the #MeToo movement to "defame and vilify Carter and otherwise ruin his reputation for the purposes of garnering attention and fame and/or extorting money from Carter," according to the suit obtained by PEOPLE.

Schuman also describes in Fallen Idols her experience working with Carter on the song "There for Me" following the alleged assault. "I successfully evaded him for about maybe a year and a half, and I started to do music again – I was trying to move on as a solo artist," Schuman said. "And I signed with Kenneth Crear's management company, only to later find out that Kenneth was like family to Nick. And so I remember Kenneth goes, 'Nick recorded this song, it's a duet, and you know he and I were discussing and we both agree you should sing this duet with him.'"

"My first thought was, 'Do I have to be alone with him?' and Kenneth goes, 'Oh, no, it's already pre-recorded. You only have to go in and do your part,'" she continued. "I could feel Kenneth's eyes on me, like he was observing me, and he goes 'Nick is dating Paris Hilton.' Why would he feel the need to say that? What did Nick tell him? And I also thought to myself, 'Well, he'll leave me alone.'"

Schuman said she felt pressured to accept the song and to perform it with Carter at a showcase set for Sony Records executives as they considered signing her. "It was incredibly overwhelming," she said. "The very thing I had thought that I was able to avoid, but I felt that I needed to do it for the business opportunity. When the showcase happened, I remember seeing him and I froze, completely froze. I was scared, and I was very cold to him. And we sang our duet. I don't even think I looked at him. And eventually, he goes, 'Well clearly we don't like each other.' And those were the last words he ever said to me."

Schuman says she eventually was told the label was "not interested" in working with her because of "vocally weak" performance. "I was 20 years old. And it's like I knew in that moment, like, 'This is it.' I could hear it in his voice, that that was it. I tried for a really long time, but there was just this part of me that was left behind a long time ago," she said. "When I look back at this song now, it feels almost premeditated where it was presented like it was going to actually help me. But in reality it feels more like an alibi for him."

In court documents, Crear disputed Schuman's account of the events, according to Fallen Idols, which added a note stating that Carter has "denied the allegations and questions his accusers' credibility." Carter also declined to be interviewed for the docuseries.

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Carter's attorney Dale Hayes, Jr., addressed the claims in the docuseries in a statement to Us Weekly. "These are exactly the same outrageous claims that led us to sue this gang of conspirators. Those cases are working their way through the legal system now, and, based on both the initial court rulings and the overwhelming evidence, we have every belief that we will prevail and hold them accountable for spreading these falsehoods."

Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter premieres across two nights on Monday, May 27, and Tuesday, May 28, at 9 p.m. ET on ID and will be available to stream on Max.

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