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A Backstreet Boys Christmas television special has been axed amid rape allegations against singer Nick Carter.
A Very Backstreet Holiday, which was to feature the group’s songs from their latest album of the same name and was scheduled for a Dec. 14 broadcast, has been dropped by ABC following the sexual assault claims, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The outlet said: “The decision to pull the special follows a lawsuit filed Thursday alleging that Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter raped a 17-year-old fan on his tour bus after a 2001 concert in Tacoma, Washington.”
Nick, 42, is accused of the historic sexual assaults of a total of four women.
They include Shannon “Shay” Ruth, who said on Thursday she was raped by the singer in 2001 when she was a virgin after he allegedly plied her with an alcoholic mix she says he called “VIP juice.”
Shay’s lawyer Mark J Boskovich said three other women, identified publicly only as Jane Doe, are also included a joint sexual assault lawsuit filed alongside his client’s.
Shay says Nick gave her a sexually transmitted disease, and the New York Post has reported one of his anonymous alleged victims identified as Doe 1 says in court papers Nick raped her in 2003, leaving her with HPV.
It added a complaint filed in Clark County District Court, Nevada, where Nick lives, shows “another victim identified as Doe 2 said she and Carter had sex multiple times when she was 15-years-old.”
The publication said court documents claim the singer, then 23, knew the girl’s age and that he gave her alcohol.
It added the suit also claims Nick sexually assaulted a woman identified as Doe 3 at a house party in Key West, Florida.
On Friday, Nick’s lawyer slammed rape claims against the singer as “entirely untrue.”
Attorney Michael Holtz told New York Post’s Page Six column in a statement about Shay’s allegations: “This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue.
“Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms. Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick – and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time.
“No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer – there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize.”
A Facebook live-streamed press conference held by Shay on Thursday saw her tearfully allege Nick raped her on a Backstreet Boys tour bus when she was a virgin, after she had waited for an autograph.
Shay, who suffers autism and cerebral palsy, is also said to claim she got a sexually transmitted infection after the incident and is seeking monetary damages.
In 2017, former 1990s girl group Dream member Melissa Schuman claimed Nick sexually assaulted her when she was an 18-year-old virgin and he was 22 – which Nick, who was not criminally charged, denied.
