“Fallen Idols” delves into the accusations and controversies surrounding Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and late pop singer Aaron Carter.
The Investigation Discovery docuseries introduces three women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Nick: Melissa Schuman, a singer best known for being a member of the girl group Dream; Ashley Repp, a former friend of Nick’s sister Angel; and Shannon “Shay” Ruth, who was the first woman to file a sexual assault lawsuit against him in December 2022.
The four-part docuseries also provides insight into the Carter family — consisting of parents Robert and Jane and children Nick, Leslie, Angel, Bobbie Jean and Aaron — which was plagued with a series of tragedies: Leslie died at age 25 from a drug overdose in 2012; in 2022, Aaron drowned at age 34 under the effects of alprazolam, a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane; and Bobbie Jean died from a drug overdose at age 41 in 2023.
In the doc, a title card read that Nick “denied the allegations and questions his accusers’ credibility,” as well as declined to be interviewed.
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Here are the five biggest revelations from “Fallen Idols,” which airs across two nights on May 27 and May 28 at 9 p.m. ET. on ID and Max.
Nick’s text message to Schuman after alleged sexual assault
Schuman recounted her alleged rape by Nick in 2003. At the time, the two were filming the TV movie “The Hollow.” According to Schuman, he invited her and a friend over to his apartment for a “casual hangout” in Santa Monica. Schuman claimed that Nick took her into a bathroom, where he began to forcibly perform oral sex on her.
“He continues to kiss me and then he puts me up on the counter. I can feel him unbuttoning my pants and I stop him and tell him, ‘I don’t want to go any further,’” Schuman said. “But he did not listen to me, despite the fact that I resisted and told him no. He started to perform oral sex on me, which was horrific.”
She added, “I turned off the light so I didn’t have to see it, see him, see any of it. He kept turning it back on and telling me he wanted to look at me, which was even more humiliating and gross. I don’t even know how long it went on for.”
Schuman alleged that Nick forced her to reciprocate, saying, “He pulls off his pants and puts himself on the counter and says, ‘Now do it to me.’”
After she declined, Schuman claimed, “He started to get really angry and irritated with me.”
They subsequently moved to the bedroom, she recalled. “As he is kissing me, I am telling him, ‘I don’t want to have sex. I am saving myself for marriage.’ I told him so many times, ‘I am saving myself for my future husband.’ He said, ‘I could be your husband.’”
Schuman then told the cameras she “felt him put something inside” of her.
“I didn’t see it. I didn’t try to see it. I asked him, ‘Nick, what is that? He said, ‘It’s all me, baby,’” she continued. “Eventually he goes, ‘You’re not enjoying this, are you?’ I said, ‘No.’ And that’s when he got off me.”
The day after the alleged sexual assault, Schuman received a text message from the singer that read, “Why did you make me do that?”
“That text message freaked me out,” Schuman said. “I confided in my manager about going to the police and reporting the crime. And he was just like, ‘[Nick’s] got the most powerful litigator in the country.’”
The docuseries noted that Nick maintains his sexual encounter with Schuman was “consensual” and that his friend Tony Bass, who was there that night, supports his account. Schuman’s previous manager also denied that she told him about the alleged rape.
Nick’s ex-girlfriend, former Pussycat Dolls member Kaya Jones, reached out to Schuman after she spoke out
Jones, who dated Nick in the 2000s, made an appearance in “Fallen Idols” to explain why she believed Schuman’s allegations.
Jones recalled reading Schuman’s blog post in 2017, in which she publicly accused Nick of raping her. Not only did Nick deny Schuman’s claims, the former Dream singer was harassed and doxxed online by his fans. So, Jones messaged Schuman on X/Twitter asking if she’d like to talk over the phone.
“I saw a young woman try to speak and someone who thought he had more power and authority try to shut her up,” Jones said in the docuseries. “He knows what I know. He knows why I left him. So do I believe that something horrific happened to that girl? Yes, yes I do.”
Schuman said Jones was “so kind” and they spoke for hours. In 2017, after Schuman published her sexual assault allegations, Jones wrote on X/Twitter: “Nick Carter was my boyfriend while I was in the Pussycat Dolls. He knew about the abuse I endured and did nothing. I guess I now know why. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Disgusted in my heart. Especially because he was a victim of abuse himself. Shame on you Nick!”
Aaron also supported the women who accused his brother of sexual assault
Nick allegedly assaulted Repp, who was friends with his sister Angel at the time, at the Carter family home in Florida when he was 23 and she was 15.
After a second instance, in which Repp claimed she was raped by Nick in front of his friends, she said, “Aaron could tell that something was wrong with me.”
“Aaron was very kind to me,” she continued. “He didn’t have a great relationship with his brother at that time because what he said were other similar events with his brother and younger girls.”
Meanwhile, Schuman claimed that in 2019, Aaron reached out to her and “told me he believed me, and that’s my brother.”
Aaron made a public outcry of support for Nick’s alleged victims, leading to an intense feud between the two brothers.
Aaron thought his family was involved in the cyber attacks against him, so he hired a private investigator
Aaron faced a wave of bullying online that took over his life, especially when he decided to publicly support Nick’s accusers.
“I was hired by Aaron Carter,” Jennifer Huffman, a private detective, said in the docuseries. “He told me he was the victim of harassment. He wanted some help getting it to stop. A lot of this stuff was from a YouTube streamer that goes by the name of Ganval. Ganval calls himself Aaron’s archnemesis.”
Aaron assumed his family was behind the cyber attacks, saying in an Instagram livestream that Nick “is clearly doing it… It only started when I became a voice for rape victims.”
Huffman then pointed to footage of Ganval and Lauren Kitt Carter, Nick’s wife, interacting on social media.
“Why would his sister-in-law be online with an individual spending his days trying to troll and harass Aaron?” Huffman questioned. “Unfortunately, there was more. There is actual live footage of Ganval when he received a donation made by Lauren Kitt Carter.”
Huffman added, “But at no time did I see any indication of Nick Carter harassing Aaron.”
The Carter children’s fraught relationship with their parents, Robert and Jane
“Fallen Idols” explores the Carters’ dysfunctional family dynamics, particularly through the relationships between the parents and their children.
Jen, a Carter family friend, claimed that mother Jane would pit Nick and Aaron against each other by comparing their success. “Jane was in Aaron’s ear all the time,” Jen said.
When Leslie died from a drug overdose in 2012, the Carter siblings’ cousin John Spaulding said that Jane “blamed Nick for Leslie’s death. She told Nick that he should’ve been there for her. He had the money — why didn’t he do something?”
Nick decided not to attend Leslie’s funeral. When Aaron learned that his older brother wouldn’t be at the service, their mother “told Aaron that he doesn’t love you,” according to Jen.
Aaron’s tour manager Mark Giovi recalled Aaron’s Broadway run in “Seussical” in 2001; Aaron was 13 years old. “He did a great job, but it was grueling and he had six shows a week,” said Giovi. “His family, I guess said they were gonna go on a family vacation when Aaron was done. He was very much looking forward to that.”
But, according to Giovi, the Carter family went on that vacation without Aaron; in response to that, Aaron “picked up a knife and put it to the side of his head.”
Elsewhere in the docuseries, Spaulding claimed he saw Aaron “huffing paint” with Robert, adding, “I don’t know how Bob even got into doing that with his son.”
“Jane and Bob Carter did some great things and advanced [Aaron’s] career to what it was, but they also did some negative things,” Giovi said on screen. “They treated the children like employees.”
