Few acts are as synonymous with the late-’90s pop increase because the Backstreet Boys. With the discharge of the quintet’s 1996 self-titled album, which housed now-classic anthems comparable to “Hand over Playin’ Video games (with My Center),” the gang, comprising contributors Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson, exploded in Europe earlier than gaining momentum within the U.S. Boosted through Best 40 radioplay and MTV’s era-defining video countdown display General Request Are living, BSB changed into a large teen-pop sensation, promoting hundreds of thousands of information and incomes 9 Grammy nominations. To at the moment, they continue to be the best-selling boy band of all time.
Not like their style contemporaries *NSYNC, BSB caught round lengthy after their Y2K height years, proceeding to excursion, unlock tune, seem in Tremendous Bowl ads, and typically lean into the nostalgia circuit.
BSB’s decades-long luck, then again, has no longer been with out controversy, in particular round Nick Carter, the gang’s youngest member, who joined when he was once simply 13 in 1993. Over time, the eldest Carter has confronted allegations of rape and sexual attack; he has been arrested and charged with riding beneath the affect and misdemeanor battery. After which there was once the extraordinarily fraught courting between Nick and his overdue brother, Aaron Carter, who changed into well-known in his personal proper as a teen-pop singer within the early 2000s however died in 2022 at 34 following his much-documented struggles with alcohol and drug dependancy, in addition to psychological well being demanding situations.
The instability and tragedy surrounding the Carter circle of relatives, together with Nick and Aaron’s folks Robert and Jane, and their siblings (Leslie Carter, who died in 2012 of a drug overdose, Bobbie Jean Carter, who additionally died of a drug overdose in February of this 12 months, and Aaron’s dual sister Angel Carter), is chronicled in ID’s four-part docuseries, Fallen Idols: Nick And Aaron Carter, which premieres on Might 27 and 28. Although it in large part makes a speciality of Nick, Fallen Idols lays blame on plenty of components that contributed to the brothers’ demanding situations: a very permissive, alcohol-filled house surroundings, poisonous fan tradition, notorious Backstreet Boys svengali Lou Perlman, and a tune trade replete with double requirements that gave in to each whim and entitlement of its a hit male performers—despite the fact that they may well be predators.
All 3 of Nick’s accusers—former Dream singer Melissa Schuman, Ashley Repp, and Shay Ruth—are interviewed within the sequence. (The ladies’s complaints are all recently in ongoing litigation.) Moreover, former Tom cat Dolls member Kaya Jones, who dated Nick within the 2000s and spoke out towards him in 2017 on Twitter, participated within the docuseries. The trailer opens together with her pronouncing: “There’s issues that I find out about Nick that might burn his area down.” The docuseries additionally comprises interviews with the Carters’ cousin John Spaulding, Aaron’s ex-girlfriend Lina Valentina, and his ex-fiance Melanie Martin, all of whom be offering perception into their circle of relatives dynamic. Those interviews paint an image of Robert Carter as a heavy drinker and negligent father and Jane Carter as a prototypical “degree mother” who was once vulnerable to evaluating Aaron’s successes to Nick’s, and later, blaming Nick for Leslie’s premature loss of life.
Robert and Jane didn’t take part within the docuseries or cope with those allegations. Their divorce was once finalized in 2004.
Taking a look intently at Aaron’s struggles with psychological well being and substance abuse, in addition to his public toughen for Nick’s accusers, Fallen Idols examines the rift between brothers and means that Aaron’s premature loss of life was once brought about partly through bullying and on-line harassment, allegedly orchestrated through Nick. Nick has denied all the allegations towards him.
Right here’s the whole lot you want to understand concerning the docuseries and the revelations it lays naked.
Who’re Melissa Schuman, Ashley Repp, and Shay Ruth, and what are their allegations towards Nick Carter?
The floodgates opened for Nick Carter when, in 2017, former Dream singer Melissa Schuman, feeling emboldened through the #MeToo motion, revealed a non-public weblog recounting how Nick had allegedly raped her in 2003 after they had been filming a TV film, The Hole.
Schuman recounts how Dream’s control sought after to pair the band contributors off with contributors of different well-known teenager teams to construct exposure. Although she had a boyfriend, Schuman, then 16, says she was once burdened through her label to take a telephone name from Nick, which she describes as “uncomfortable.”
Later, after they crossed paths on The Hole, Schuman wrote that Nick and his buddy Tony Bass invited her and a pal over to his condo for a “informal hangout” in Santa Monica. Upon their arrival, Schuman alleges that Nick made them beverages and requested if she’d love to concentrate to a few solo subject matter. She then claimed that Nick took her into a rest room, the place he forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her, pressured her to reciprocate, and ultimately moved to a bed room, the place he pressured her to have sex.
Nick denied Schuman’s 2017 allegations, pronouncing in a commentary that Schuman had “by no means expressed to me whilst we had been in combination or at any time since that the rest we did was once no longer consensual … It’s opposite to my nature and the whole lot I cling pricey to deliberately motive any individual discomfort or hurt.”
Schuman, who seems prominently in Fallen Idols, wrote that she have been somewhat vocal about no longer in need of to have intercourse—at 18, the singer was once a virgin, and in line with her Christian upbringing, had at all times deliberate to attend till her marriage ceremony evening. “I may well be your husband,” she recounted Nick pronouncing each within the weblog and docuseries.
Later, Schuman mentioned she informed her then-manager concerning the alleged rape, however was once suggested to not press fees or record a police document as a result of it would injury her occupation. In Fallen Idols, the singer calls the sexual attack “humiliating and gross” and says it “utterly modified the process my lifestyles.” Carter has persisted to signify his come upon with Schuman as consensual.
In the meantime, Ashley Repp, who additionally seems in Fallen Idols, was once a just right buddy of Aaron’s dual sister Angel, who in the summertime of 2003 invited Ashley to stick on the circle of relatives’s Florida Keys compound when she was once 15. Whilst on the compound, which Repp notes had free-flowing alcohol and nearly 0 parental supervision, Repp says she was once many times raped through Nick. In a single particularly harrowing allegation, Repp talks about Nick letting his pals watch the come upon via a ship skylight.
Fallen Idols additionally options interviews with Shannon “Shay” Ruth, who filed a lawsuit in December 2022 accusing Nick of assaulting and raping her on a Backstreet Boys excursion bus when she was once 17 after a 2001 live performance in Tacoma, Washington.
Ruth, who has cerebral palsy in addition to autism, opens up in her interview about how the singer allegedly changed into offended when she attempted to withstand his advances. She says after the come upon, she promised to inform everybody what had transpired. In reaction, she claims he screamed at her, referred to as her a “retarded complain,” and threatened: “When you inform any one, you’ll pass to prison.”
Who’s Kaya Jones, and what has she mentioned about Nick up to now?
Kaya Jones is a former member of 2000s pop act the Tom cat Dolls. In 2017, after Melissa Schuman revealed her rape allegations towards Nick Carter, Jones took to Twitter in toughen of Schuman, writing: “Nick Carter was once my boyfriend whilst I used to be within the Tom cat Dolls. He knew concerning the abuse I persevered and did not anything. I assume I now know why. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Disgusted in my middle. Particularly as a result of he was once a sufferer of abuse himself. Disgrace on you Nick!”
Nick’s early life hardships come to mild as former MTV VJ Dave Holmes recounts within the sequence: “Nick, from what I perceive, noticed pop tune as his price tag out of a house lifestyles that was once more or less sketchy.” Spaulding additionally describes the wedding of Nick and Aaron’s folks, his aunt and uncle, as repeatedly being at the rocks, with Nick coming to stick with his circle of relatives in Jamestown, New York, for “a few years” earlier than relocating to Florida. “I felt accountable for keeping up everyone’s happiness,” Nick wrote in his 2013 memoir, Dealing with the Song And Dwelling To Communicate About It.
“At evening, we would pass to our rooms to escape from the arguing,” Nick additionally wrote in his e-book. “Shall we pay attention issues breaking always—furnishings, glasses, and the rest they might throw. My dad owned a gun and he’d shoot it out the window once in a while when he were given in point of fact mad. Worry was once an on a regular basis a part of our family. My dad dominated through intimidation.”
“The Carters had monetary hassle. They usually had monetary motivations to place their youngsters within the trade,” leisure journalist Scaachi Koul provides in Fallen Idols.
Jones additionally attached the abuse she persevered throughout her time within the Tom cat Dolls (an enjoy she in comparison to being in a “prostitution ring”) to what she skilled in her courting with Nick. Additionally in 2017, she stood up for Schuman, tweeting: “I used to be susceptible and in a gaggle which served me abuse day by day. Now not shocked I fell in love with a predator and had no concept to start with. Till we needed to meet together with his legal professional for a sexual abuse case he claimed was once a fan. Smartly Nick that was once again in 2004 are you gonna deny this?”
Within the trailer for Fallen Idols, Jones opens up about her enjoy in a courting with the BSB singer and issues out how fact diverged from myth: “Nick seems like the very best, beautiful Ken doll. However I know the way evil he will also be.”
What did Aaron Carter say concerning the allegations towards his brother?
So much, it seems.
Fallen Idols’ number one focal point is the fraught courting between brothers, outlining how they had been pitted towards one some other, particularly through their very own mom as performers and circle of relatives suppliers. Jane Carter has no longer addressed those particular allegations, however she did cope with her position as their mum or dad in a 2005 interview with ABC: “I sacrificed my entire whole lifestyles for that kid and to place the opposite kid for the sake of that circle of relatives.”
“It was once by no means a couple of mother-son courting,” Aaron counters on digicam in the similar 2005 ABC information phase. “It was once at all times about paintings. Once in a while I might forestall and be like, ‘mother, why can not we simply combat about me being an adolescent and me rising up?’ It was once all about cash.”
The docuseries issues to an notorious scene within the 2006 E! fact sequence Area Of Carters the place Nick and Aaron get right into a bodily altercation ostensibly over Aaron’s taking part in tune overdue at evening. As the remainder of the circle of relatives tries to get a divorce the combat, Aaron screams that Nick is “no longer a just right individual, and everyone is aware of it.” Very quickly after, the brothers embody and say sorry.
That is one temporary instance of the love-hate, push-pull, chronically feuding courting between Nick and Aaron, who’s described as “delicate” in Fallen Idols. Previous to his loss of life, Aaron had publicly pop out in protection of Schuman on Instagram Are living in 2019. In reaction, Nick filed a restraining order towards Aaron, posting a Notes commentary to Twitter bringing up Aaron’s “increasingly more alarming conduct and his fresh confession that he harbors ideas and intentions of killing my pregnant spouse and unborn kid, we had been left without a selection however to take each measure conceivable to give protection to ourselves and our circle of relatives.” (On the time, Carter was once anticipating his 2nd kid with spouse Lauren Kitt.) The word didn’t point out the rest about Schuman’s allegations or Aaron’s toughen of her.
On the time, TMZ reported that the restraining order submitting mentioned that Aaron allegedly informed his dual sister Angel in a FaceTime about having violent ideas about “killing young children” and killing Kitt. The court docket paperwork additionally had Nick alleging that Aaron owned six “readily to be had” firearms.
Along with his Instagram Are living with Schuman, Aaron have been tweeting about Nick’s alleged historical past of violence towards ladies and preying on underage ladies. After the restraining order was once filed, Aaron steered that it was once in point of fact an act of retaliation “as a result of I are living streamed with considered one of his accusers.”
However because the docuseries illustrates, Aaron’s talking out on behalf of Schuman induced a large wave of on-line harassment, bullying, and doxxing, all of which seemed to motive him important emotional misery. At other issues, Aaron, who was once nonetheless scuffling with his addictions, combating to regain custody of his son, Prince, would retract his accusations towards his brother.
What new details about the Carters does Fallen Idols disclose?
Whilst Fallen Idols does retread acquainted territory, it digs a lot deeper and provides contextual toughen to present headlines—from the sexual attack and rape allegations towards Nick and his development of abuse towards ladies to the total Carter circle of relatives dynamic.
In long interviews with Schuman, Repp, and Ruth, Fallen Idols strains each and every girl’s particular person interactions with Nick, continuously in excruciating element.
For starters, Schuman will get into the worrying aftermath of her alleged attack, pronouncing, “I used to be in any such position of denial. Then I won a textual content message from Nick that learn, ‘Why did you are making me do this?’ That textual content message freaked me out. I confided in my supervisor about going to the police and reporting the crime. He informed me, ‘[Nick] has probably the most tough litigator within the nation.’”
In a commentary to filmmakers, Schuman’s earlier supervisor denied that Schuman informed him concerning the alleged attack. The docuseries additionally notes that Nick has mentioned that his come upon with Schuman was once “consensual.” His buddy Tony Bass corroborated his account.
Schuman additionally discusses how she opted to not do a rape package as a result of she couldn’t face what had took place. She says she were given via the remainder of filming The Hole and adjusted her quantity, swearing to keep away from Nick in any respect prices. Her plan hit a snag when she signed with Kenneth Crear’s control corporate, no longer knowing that the manufacturer had a longstanding friendship with Nick Carter.
In step with Schuman, Crear requested her to sing a duet with Nick, “There For Me.” “My first concept was once, ‘Do I should be on my own with him?’ and Kenneth is going, ‘Oh, no, it’s already pre-recorded. You simplest have to head in and do your section,’” she says. However Schuman was once pressured to be onstage with Nick to sing their duet at a Sony Data exhibit. “When the exhibit took place, I be mindful seeing him and I iced up,” she says. “I used to be very chilly to him. I don’t even assume I checked out him. In the end he is going, ‘Smartly, obviously we don’t like each and every different.’ And the ones had been the ultimate phrases he mentioned to me.”
Crear ultimately informed Schuman that Sony had declined to paintings together with her any longer as a result of she’d been “vocally susceptible.”
Schuman continues: “After I glance again at this music now, it feels nearly premeditated the place it was once offered love it was once going to in reality assist me. However if truth be told it feels extra like an alibi for him.”
In the meantime, in Jones’ interview, the previous Tom cat Dolls singer tells interviewers about Schuman: “I noticed a tender girl attempt to talk and any individual who concept he had extra energy and authority attempt to close her up. He is aware of what I do know. He is aware of why I left him. So do I consider that one thing horrific took place to that lady? Sure, sure I do.”
Additionally in her interview, Jones recounts transferring in with Nick after 4 days of courting. Although she says he was once “by no means bodily violent” together with her, she describes his anger manifesting in alternative ways, together with punching partitions. Jones additionally remembers an incident resulting in the couple’s cut up, the place Nick allegedly confirmed her pornography and many times requested her to “do that for me,” turning into “very nasty in no time” when she refused.
Fallen Idols additionally conducts a long interview with Repp, who recounts how, when the singer first approached her when she was once 15 and he was once 23, “I had no clue what I used to be doing. I had by no means even kissed a man… I felt so inebriated and out of my thoughts. He was once sloppily inebriated too,” Repp claimed. “Then we ended up having intercourse. I used to be simply so uncomfortable and I be mindful pondering that it harm.”
Repp additionally recollects questioning if Nick would say sorry to her earlier than she left to head house. As a substitute, she says, “He poured us a drink then he requested me to accomplish oral intercourse on him, which I declined a couple of instances. He stored at me. I ultimately gave in, and we proceeded to have intercourse once more. He by no means used coverage, and it was once very abrupt.”
Repp, who was once the similar age as Aaron, additionally mentioned her friendship with the more youthful Carter brother, pronouncing, “He knew concerning the incidents with Nick and he was once at all times simply in point of fact candy. We did finally end up having a romantic courting however in the long run we determined it was once higher if we had been simply just right pals.”
Because the undesirable incidents with Nick added up, she mentioned “Aaron may just inform that one thing was once unsuitable with me. Aaron was once very sort to me. He didn’t have a super courting together with his brother at the moment as a result of what he mentioned had been different equivalent occasions together with his brother and more youthful ladies.”
Since her participation in Fallen Idols, Repp formally sued Nick in August 2023, alleging sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional misery, and negligent infliction of emotional misery. Nick’s legal professional has denied the allegations.
In the end, Fallen Idols comprises probably the most complete model of Shay Ruth’s allegations towards Nick and main points how she wanted intensive trauma treatment to unearth reminiscences of the 2001 attack. Her lawsuit was once the primary of the 3—Schuman and Repp’s adopted after (Repp went through “A.R.” on the time). As a result of Ruth couldn’t recall all the main points on the time of her deposition, prosecutors declined to record fees.
Nick, in the meantime, countersued at the grounds that Schuman and Repp have “orchestrated” their allegations as a part of a “plan to garner status and extort Carter out of cash.”
How does the docuseries tie the allegations towards Nick to Aaron’s loss of life?
Fallen Idols appears at poisonous fan tradition and bullying as probably contributing to Aaron’s loss of life in 2022. All over each and every episode, Backstreet Boys “superfans” talk to the filmmakers, protecting Nick.
After publicly protecting Schuman, Aaron underwent such a lot harassment through lovers—who seemed to be rooting for him to relapse, with one even sending him a can of air duster within the mail—that he employed a personal investigator, satisfied Nick was once at the back of the cyber assaults. (Aaron had a documented historical past of being hooked on huffing inhalants.)
“Numerous [the cyberbullying] was once from [a social media user named] Ganvel, who calls himself Aaron’s archnemesis,” says Jennifer Huffman, the personal investigator. “Aaron believed his circle of relatives was once at the back of it.” It seems that “Ganvel” had a confirmed connection to Nick’s spouse, Lauren Kitt, who will also be noticed donating cash to Ganvel in a single video.
Schuman was once additionally the topic of bullying and on-line harassment, particularly from a YouTuber referred to as “MollyGoLightly,” who claimed to not be a Backstreet Boys fan. As Schuman’s father Jerome tells filmmakers, different MollyGoLightly movies demonstrated that she did if truth be told have a deep connection to the Carter camp. MollyGoLightly pops up intermittently right through the sequence; resurfaced movies display her with Aaron through which she claims to be his lifestyles trainer. On the time, Aaron had walked again his toughen of Schuman.
What has the Carter circle of relatives mentioned concerning the docuseries?
A word on the finish of Fallen Idols states that Nick has “denied the allegations and questions his accusers’ credibility.” The singer additionally declined to be interviewed for the documentary.
In the meantime, in a commentary to Us Weekly, Nick’s legal professional Dale Hayes, Jr. mentioned: “Those are precisely the similar outrageous claims that led us to sue this gang of conspirators. The ones circumstances are operating their method throughout the criminal machine now, and, in keeping with each the preliminary court docket rulings and the overpowering proof, now we have each trust that we can succeed and cling them in command of spreading those falsehoods.”
Likewise, in line with the claims in Fallen Idols, Nick’s criminal crew supplied an in depth selection of paperwork which can be recently at the website online FallenIdolsDocumentary.com.
What have Backstreet Boys mentioned concerning the allegations towards Nick Carter?
After Ruth got here ahead, AJ McLean mentioned that the Backstreet Boys had been supportive of Nick, telling the Day-to-day Mail, “All of us stand at the back of Nick, and all of us absolutely toughen him. He’s doing as nice as he can. [Backstreet Boys] couldn’t be extra cast.”
The place do the complaints towards Nick recently stand?
Although the Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace declined to pursue prison fees towards Nick in line with Schuman’s 2018 lawsuit since the statute of boundaries had expired, Schuman did record a civil lawsuit in April 2023.
Previous to Schuman’s civil go well with, Carter filed a defamation counter lawsuit for $2.3 million towards all 3 ladies, denying the accusations made towards him and claiming that they’re a part of a much wider conspiracy to bother him.
As of January 2024, a Los Angeles pass judgement on denied Nick’s bid to push aside Schuman’s lawsuit at the grounds that the declare in reality belongs in Las Vegas, the place his defamation go well with is ongoing. “I simply wish to display him that I’m no longer scared,” Schuman informed Rolling Stone. I’m no longer intimidated. That the whole lot that they’ve put me via ever since I got here ahead isn’t operating on me. I’m no longer backing down. I’m no longer going away. I’m no longer staying silent. I can combat for justice.”
