On Tuesday, Nick Carter found himself at the center of allegations of sexual assault and rape made by Melissa Schuman. Millennials may be familiar with Schuman from her involvement in the early ’00s girl group, Dream. In an extended blog post, Schuman opened up about allegedly being coerced, sexually assaulted and raped by Carter when she was 18 and he was 22. The two pop stars were working together on the film The Hollow at the time.
It should be noted at the top here that Schuman never directly names Carter in the blog post. However, numerous outlets reporting on this news story seem to have connected the dots between her stating that her abuser was in a massively famous boy band, the fact that she met him while filming a made-for-TV movie (The Hollow appears to be Carter’s only made-for-TV movie credit that fits with Schuman’s alleged timeline) and the fact that she uses a screenshot of an article making similar allegations against Carter to report that Carter is Schuman’s abuser as well.
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Schuman says in her post they’d interacted prior to filming that movie. According to her blog post, they were first introduced via phone while she was filming the music video for “This Is Me (Remix).”
“My label informed me that this person’s rep had reached out to them and he shown [sic] romantic interest in me and would like to set up a chat over the phone. My label reps sat in on the call, anticipating a spark between the two of us. I was already dating someone steadily at the time,” she writes. “I was transparent with my then boyfriend about the call and assured him I had no interest but needed to at least accept his call out of respect and courtesy to my label. I took the phone call. He was very polite and the conversation was quick.”
Melissa Schuman from pop group Dream writes that Nick Carter sexually assaulted her when she was 18 years old https://t.co/XDPHbtXGxUpic.twitter.com/Pu2IHJWsHJ
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) November 21, 2017
Schuman then says they didn’t interact until a year later on the set of the film. According to her, she and a friend were invited to Carter’s apartment during a day off from filming. It was during this time that Carter took Schuman into a bathroom and initiated kissing her. When she asked what he was doing, “[h]e didn’t respond and continued to kiss me. He then pick [sic] me up, put me on the bathroom counter and started to unbutton my pants. I told him I didn’t want to go any further.”
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Schuman continues to write that Carter allegedly performed oral sex on her without her consent and encouraged her to do the same to him. At one point, Carter allegedly repeatedly begged to have intercourse, but Schuman firmly told him she was saving herself for her husband. This begging and rebuffing went on for several minutes before Carter allegedly began having sex with her. She wrote in her post that she considered legal action at the time, but she “would likely be buried in humiliation, accused of being fame hungry, and it would ultimately hurt [her] professionally as well as publicly.”
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Following her blog post and ostensibly reacting to the outpouring of support in response to it, Schuman wrote a thank-you note on her Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
“I just want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support. Thank you for bearing witness to my story. Thank you for providing me a safe place to be open and vulnerable. I love you all. Thank you for aiding me in the healing that I so desperately needed. I am free now,” she wrote to her followers.
I just want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support. Thank you for bearing witness to my story. Thank you for providing me a safe place to be open and vulnerable. I love you all. Thank you for aiding me in the healing that I so desperately needed. I am free now.
— MelissaSchuman (@MelissaSchuman) November 21, 2017
Carter has yet to respond publicly to Schuman’s allegations.
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