Dancer Sharna Burgess, who was Backstreet Boys star Nick Carter’s dance partner in the reality based TV show Dancing With the Stars, has defended him over rape accusations.

She says Carter is a “sweet and understanding” person.

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The Backstreet Boys star has been accused of sexual assault by Melissa Schuman, 33, who claimed in November that the singer had forced her into having sex with him at his home in 2002. But Burgess has praised the “I want it that way” hitmaker as “one of the most respectful” people she has worked with on the show, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Burgess tweeted a video on Sunday.

She said: “What I loved about Nick was that he always took ownership of the things that he’d been through – the darkness in his history, the mistakes that he had made. He wanted to be very open about them and how he felt about them, even though they were very heavy and hard for him to say out loud, so that he could inspire other people to be better and learn from him.”

The dancer also praised Carter for being respectful and down-to-earth when dealing with everyone who worked on the competition.

“This guy would treat craft and the PAs and all the crew and grips, and then the dancers to the producers — everybody was treated the same by Nick. No one got more attention than the other and even in the most stressful of moments, not once did he ever speak to anybody badly, demand anything, become a diva or show anything ugly,” she said in the video.

“He only showed absolute gratitude for being there and having made it that far, and a passion for working hard and trying to do better,” Burgess added.

She said: “This is me saying, ‘Nick, I adore you. I think you are such a good person from the inside to the out, and I think that will shine through. I think that the truth always shines through.”

However, Burgess made it clear that she was not “victim shaming” with her public posts.

She captioned one of the videos: “These are only my thoughts. This is not victim shaming, you all know me and I would never. Just because I support Nick, doesn’t mean I don’t support female empowerment or ‘Me Too’. They are both movements that I am a part of, here for and proud of.”