Fallen Idols: Nick Carter breaks silence on doc allegations

Daisy Phillipson
Footage of Nick Carter shown in Fallen Idols

Nick Carter has broken his silence on the allegations made against him in Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter, with his legal team branding them “outrageous.”

Investigation Discovery’s new true crime saga centers on the sexual assault allegations against the Backstreet Boys singer, as well as the Carter family and the many struggles they’ve had over the years. 

Nick has been served three lawsuits by women who appear in Fallen Idols, including Dream singer Melissa Schuman, family friend Ashley Repp, and Shannon “Shay” Ruth, the first to take legal action in December 2022. 

The singer has denied the claims and filed countersuits, all of which are currently going through the legal process. Although Nick Carter turned down requests to appear in the documentary, his legal team has since responded to the allegations made in the series. 

In a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter, his attorney, Dale Hayes Jr, said: “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.”

In a separate conversation with THR, Fallen Idols executive producer Michael Hirschorn stated that they reached out to Nick’s team during the filming process. 

“We had ongoing and continue to have communications with the Nick Carter camp,” he explained

“Journalistically, if there were allegations that were made, the things that were contended by some of the women or other people we spoke to, we asked for responses from the Carter camp. 

“At every point, we have also included legal documents as part of a resource for people who want to dig more deeply into the project and want to learn more, because there’s a significant paper trail of charges and counter-charges.”

Hirschorn described the fact that Fallen Idols was made while the legal cases were still active as both “remarkable” and “tricky.”

The filmmaking team wanted to make sure they provided Melissa, Ashley, and Shannon with an “objective third party.”

“We want to give them a platform and a forum to say what they want to say, and we’re very comfortable that we conveyed the essence of what they wanted to say accurately,” Hirschorn continued.

“But then it was incumbent on us to make sure that if the Nick Carter camp… had an opportunity to respond, that we were representing and weighing those responses in a thoughtful way.”

Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter is available to stream on Max now. For more true crime, find out about 50 Cent’s P Diddy documentary, how to watch the Burning Sun documentary in the US, and whether Ashley Madison’s Sam and Nia Rader are still together.