Rhye’s Michael Milosh Accused of Grooming & Abuse by Ex-Wife Alexa Nikolas, Denies Allegations

Nikolas recalls doing an interview with online magazine Verse that the musician’s team allegedly tried to kill upon publication. In the interview, she had opened up about becoming pen pals with Milosh before the Zoey 101 child actress had turned 18. Nikolas later told Verse that every song on Rhye’s 2013 debut studio album Woman was about her and their experience together. “The album is called Woman because I was still a young girl. The song ‘Woman’ was a foreshadowing of the woman I was going to become,” she told the publication.

In his statement, Milosh went on to address some of Nikolas’ allegations about their communications and what he described as an amicable divorce, which was finalized after nearly seven years of marriage. He also discussed the trip she made to Berlin to visit him when she was 18, their photography collaborations, his musical inspirations, and more.

According to Milosh, the former couple “shared many special years” before splitting. Regarding her first trip to see him in Berlin, he recalled, “Alexa came to Berlin several months after her 18th birthday and we spent a week hanging out enjoying the city taking photographs that she eventually used as her IMDb listing headshot and modeling photos. We fell in love.” He added that he ultimately moved to Los Angeles so that she could continue to pursue her career.

But, per Milosh’s statement, his work as a touring musician put strain on their relationship. “She came to feel my professional life has had a negative impact on her and our life together,” he said. “We filed for divorce using a mediator who arrived at a fair settlement and processes the documents. Neither of us engaged individual divorce attorneys and there is no courtroom drama.”

In Nikolas’ open letter about their relationship starting in 2008 — when Nikolas was 16 and Milosh was 33 — she discussed how “turned on” he allegedly said he was after she had sent a picture, which she shows in one of the slides of her Instagram post, of the costume she wore while portraying a 14-year-old pregnant Amish girl in Children of the Corn.

Nikolas later details the alleged sexual nature of their Skype video calls, and then when she turned 18, she visited the then-35-year-old musician in Berlin at his request and paid what she didn’t know at the time to be an entire month’s worth of rent for his apartment that she temporarily stayed with him in. The 28-year-old actress later recounts her first sexual experience with Milosh that first night in Berlin, and how he made her “very uncomfortable” by allegedly not respecting her decision to say “No” in the first place, among other details of alleged abuse during their relationship.

In regards to their split, the former child actress wrote in one part of her open letter that she had actually wanted a lawyer to represent her interests in their divorce. “In the end,” she wrote, “he bullied me out of having proper representation during the divorce. He decided to get a mediator and out of fear I complied.”

On Tuesday (March 16), Nikolas shared what she said were testimonies on Instagram from other women who have come forward to her with claims of crude behavior against Milosh, from close family friends, to women who met him after shows. Their stories allegedly involve the musician openly discussing his past sexual experiences with other women and showing naked pictures he took of them.

“It is extremely disheartening and disgusting. I am currently in the process of consoling and speaking to these individuals,” Nikolas wrote in her introduction of the women’s messages to her. “I am not surprised that his cruel behavior was exhibited before, during, and after our marriage.”

Milosh insisted in his statement to Billboard that her claims are false and “defamatory.” He concluded his statement: “I reiterate that these accusations are outrageously false and the manipulated stories provably untrue. I’m fully prepared to cooperate with any independent investigation into these false claims and look forward to being cleared of all the shameless mirrors.”