Musician Michael Milosh, AKA Rhye, accused of sexual abuse and grooming

Musician Michael Milosh, AKA Rhye, has been accused by his ex-wife of grooming and sexually abusing her.

Milosh has denied the allegations, calling them “absurd and outrageous false claims”.

In posts on Instagram, Alexa Nikolas, an actor, has accused Milosh of grooming her from the age of 16, after she complimented him via a message on MySpace. She said they began messaging – including “sexual and flirtatious” video calls – until she was 18, when Milosh, then 35, invited her to visit him in Berlin. She accused him of pressuring her into sex after she initially resisted, saying: “I did not respect my no and neither did he,” and then claims he forced her to perform sex acts that she resisted.

Their relationship continued, and she and Milosh married when she was 19. She has accused Milosh, who is Canadian, of using the marriage to get a US visa, and of financial exploitation, physical assault and gaslighting. She has also accused him of recording her saying “no” during sex and using a sample of that in Rhye song. The couple divorced, with Nikolas accus

ing Milosh of bullying behaviour during their mediation. Nikolas concluded: “To this day, I still suffer PTSD from that relationship, even doubting my own sanity on some days.”

Milosh released a statement denying Nikolas’s claims, calling them “a piece of revisionist fiction”. He said he is “fully prepared to cooperate with any independent investigation”.

He added: “I have always wished her nothing but the best and continued to support her financially even after I was no longer required to under our divorce agreement. Eventually, I stopped paying [and] in response, Alexa has resorted to character assassination.”

Nikolas responded to the statement, saying Milosh was “denying the truth”.

Milosh is a critically acclaimed and successful musician, with hundreds of millions of online streams of his muted R&B music. He began releasing recordings as Rhye in 2013, initially as a duo with producer Robin Hannibal for the debut album Woman. Milosh has released three further albums as Rhye, adding to three solo albums under his own name.

Nikolas’s acting career began in childhood, notably with a main role on the Nickelodeon TV series Zoey 101. She has also appeared in The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Heroes.