NEWSNick Carter Takes The Stage At iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball After Lawyers Slam Rape Allegations
Nick Carter took the stage alongside the other members of The Backstreet Boys at iHeartRadio's annual Jingle Ball music festival on Friday, December 9 — his first performance since he was accused of sexually assaulting a minor in 2001.
The 42-year-old singer sported an all white suit and matching shoes as the famed boy band sang several of their hit songs for the cheering crowd.
This comes only days after Carter was sued by Shannon Ruth, 39, who claimed he had raped her after a concert in Tacoma, Wash., over 20 years ago, when she was only 17-years-old.
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Ruth stated Carter had invited her onto his tour bus and given her what he called "VIP juice" — what she had initially thought was cranberry juice but later believed had contained alcohol — and demanded she perform oral sex on him before later allegedly sexually assaulting her in one of the beds.
Ruth also alleged that she had been a virgin prior to the encounter and that she'd contracted HPV following the assault.
"The last 21 years have been filled with pain, confusion, frustration, shame and self-harm that are a direct result of Nick Carter raping me," she said in a statement at the time. "Even though I’m autistic and live with cerebral palsy, I believe that nothing has affected me more or had a more lasting impact on my life than what Nick Carter did and said to me.”
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Carter's legal team immediately slammed the accusations as "legally meritless" and "entirely untrue" in an press conference earlier this week.
"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," his attorney said. "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."
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And while Jingle Ball still welcomed the Backstreet Boys to the stage this weekend, ABC chose to cancel their Christmas special, A Very Backstreet Holiday, originally scheduled to premiere on Wednesday, December 14.
