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Where is Melissa Schuman now? This is what we know

TheoMay 29, 2024

Melissa Schuman felt that the song she recorded with Nick Carter was secretly meant to serve as an alibi for him.

Source: Getty Images

In 2001, the boy band scene was definitely awash. It was the height of the largely manufactured music group craze, and teenage girls all over the world couldn’t get enough of them. From 98 Degrees to N’Sync to LMNT and O-Town, there was enough synchronized dancing to get you through any slumber party. If you looked at any teenage girl’s bedroom wall at the time, you were sure to see a group of smiling, frosted-haired boys staring into your young eyes.

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Fortunately, the genre was also dominated by girl groups that took after the Spice Girls. Die-hard fans of this kind of contrived entertainment will remember Dream well, who were thrown together by a talent scout in the late ’90s and later signed to Bad Boy Records. It was during this time that one member, Melissa Schuman, claimed she had been raped by Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. She chose to reveal this more than 15 years later. Where is she now? That’s what we know.

Source: Getty Images

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What is Melissa Schuman doing now?

In May 2024, Investigation Discovery (ID) released a documentary detailing the controversies surrounding Nick and Aaron Carter. While Aaron’s issues largely relate to his struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, Nick’s issues center on the numerous allegations of sexual assault made against him by numerous women. Schuman is just one of them.

In her TikTok bio, Schuman describes herself as a two-time platinum artist, sexual assault survivor and advocate, and SAG-AFTRA actress. In many of her videos, she talks about Nick and her own alleged incident, but she also supports other survivors. Schuman also occasionally posts hilarious videos with her husband and son.

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In April 2023, Schuman sued Carter after California Governor Gavin Newsom “approved a bill that revived some sexual assault lawsuits that had expired due to the statute of limitations,” reported USA todayIn September 2018, California prosecutors dropped the assault charge against Carter due to the statute of limitations. Schuman told the Related Press at the time that “more should be done to take retrospective personal injury claims into account,” the BBC.

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After the alleged assault, Melissa Schuman and Nick Carter recorded a song together.

In sexual assault cases, people focus not on what the accused does but on the behavior of the alleged victim. In Schuman’s case, she claims Carter raped her in 2003 when she was only 18 years old. Shortly afterward, the two recorded a song together. This seemed odd considering what Schuman says Carter did to her. In the ID docuseries, Schuman addresses this situation.

She didn’t want to record the duet with Carter and even told her management that she had no interest in it. Unfortunately, this was presented as an opportunity for Schuman to launch a solo career and she felt trapped, like that was the only way. It didn’t help that she and Carter worked with the same manager, a man named Kenneth Crear, who approached Schuman with the song.

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“When I look at that song now, it almost feels like it was done intentionally. It was presented as if it was actually helping me, but in reality it feels more like an alibi for him,” she said in the documentary. “People don’t understand that and they say, ‘Well, you followed him on Twitter. You sent him your condolences. You liked a tweet.’ I really tried my best to forgive him and move on with my life.”

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In court documents obtained by PeopleCrear says he did not sign Schuman to his management company. Crear recalls that he was simply trying to help the young singer, who said he was “excited about the opportunity to work with Carter.” Crear said Schuman was not at all excited about the prospect of singing a song with Carter. As a reminder, one should not base an action solely on another person’s reaction to it. Schuman said she was in denial about what happened to her, hence her reaction.

Schuman never reported the matter to the police because she was afraid it would ruin her career, but she insists she signed with Crear’s company. That’s when he suggested she sing with Carter. When asked if she needed to be alone with him, Crear assured Schuman that she didn’t, so she was shocked to see him in the recording studio. Things weren’t going well for Schuman, who hadn’t signed a record deal. When Carter noticed how cold she was, he had only one thing to say: “Well, obviously we don’t like each other.”