Nick Carter's DWTS Partner Sharna Burgess Defends Him amid Rape Allegations

Nick Carter‘s Dancing with the Stars partner, Sharna Burgess, has taken to social media to defend the singer after rape allegations made against him.

The DWTS pro first shared an article on Saturday about the allegations made by former teen pop singer Melissa Schuman in November. Schuman, now 33, detailed the alleged incident on her personal blog, claiming that Carter had raped her in the early 2000s when she was 18 and he was 22.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Carter denied the allegations, saying Schuman “never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual.”

“Nick was definitely one of the most respectful guys that I’ve ever danced with on the show,” she said. “From day one, he was just incredibly sweet and understanding of what it was that we had to do. He was very accepting of me bossing him around every day — I can be bossy, some of you know that.”

She continued, “What I loved about Nick, too, was that… he always took ownership of the things he’d been through, the darkness in his history, the mistakes he’d made. He wanted to be very open about them, even though they were very heavy and hard for him to say out loud.”

Burgess said Carter shared his painful past “so that he could hopefully inspire other people to be better and not make the same mistakes and essentially learn from him.”

On his treatment of others, the dancer said Carter would treat everyone the same and with a good attitude.

“And even in the most stressful of moments… not once did he ever speak anybody badly, demand anything, become a diva, show anything ugly, other than absolute gratitude for having been there and getting that far,” Burgess said.

Last month Schuman, then a singer in the all-girl teen group Dream, wrote that Carter had invited her over to his house during a day off from a movie they were both starring in.

Schuman wrote she had brought her roommate with her and claimed the boyband singer took her into the bathroom and they started kissing. It was then, she wrote, that Carter allegedly began to unbutton her pants and ignored her objections before allegedly performing oral sex on her. Schuman claimed he then demanded she perform oral sex on him.

Despite allegedly telling Carter that she was a virgin and waiting until marriage to have sex, Carter allegedly led her to his bedroom where she claims that he raped her.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Carter denied the allegations, saying Schuman “never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual.”

“This is the first that I am hearing about these accusations, nearly two decades later. It is contrary to my nature and everything I hold dear to intentionally cause someone discomfort or harm,” he added.