Warning: This article contains descriptions of alleged sexual assault and violence.
Michael Milosh, the Canadian musician, songwriter, and producer known for his projects Rhye and Milosh, has been accused of grooming, sexual assault, and domestic violence by his ex-wife, the actress Alexa Nikolas.
In an open letter shared on Instagram titled ‘Groomed by the Groom’, Nikolas alleges that Milosh “groomed a teenager for a green card, success, and sex,” and details various incidents that range from psychological manipulation and gaslighting to sexual coercion, rape, and physical violence. In her account, Nikolas includes several text messages and email screenshots, as well as lyrics from Rhye’s songs that she relates to her experiences.
In a 2018 interview with the online magazine Verse, Nikolas recounted the beginnings of her relationship with Milosh. When she was 16 years old and Milosh was 33, Nikolas claims, she sent him a MySpace message telling him that she liked his music, and he responded immediately asking for her phone number. In her post, Nikolas claims that Milosh and his representatives attempted to “take down” the interview and subjected her to “a 48 hour bullying session” following its publication: “I couldn’t believe it. I said nothing damaging and even withheld many truths out of fear of him not helping me financially during our separation.” Nikolas allegedly declined multiple invitations to meet in person until she turned 18, but in the intervening years stayed in touch with Milosh. “A lot of our conversations were via skype video chat,” she writes. “They were all sexual and flirtatious. I can account on numerous occasions undressing up on his request.”
Nikolas claims that her “first sexual experience with Milosh” was after he had invited her to visit him in Berlin on her 18th birthday. The first night she landed in Germany, she alleges that Milosh pressured her into sex, writing, “I remember feeling very uncomfortable, but I was attracted to him and I did not want our first sexual experience to be spoiled. I did not respect my no and neither did he.” She goes on to accuse Milosh of forcing her into “opening up to anal sex,” and claims that that Rhye’s 2013 song ‘Major Minor Love’ is “about grooming a young girl and gaslighting.”
Nikolas and Milosh maintained a long-distance relationship through 2010 into 2011. At the time, she claims he offered to come visit her in Los Angeles but said he was “short of funds.” Nikolas allegedly paid for his ticket and everything else while he was staying there, only to later find out the trip would revolve around a previously planned shoot for a music video.
It was also during this time that Nikolas became aware of Milosh’s alleged habit of recording women he had sex with and using the recordings in his music. “In one of his songs “Don’t call it” he used the sound of me saying ‘No’ and reversed to saying ‘On’,” Nikolas writes. “This is one of many examples of Milosh bragging about sexual violence and exploiting women in his music.” She also alleges that Milosh bragged about getting two Japanese women drunk and then using the sound of him having sex with them in his music, writing, “I doubt he got consent because they did not speak English and they were intoxicated.”
When Nikolas was 19, after they had been dating for about six months, Milosh proposed. She later found out that his label had been getting ready to drop him if he didn’t acquire a US artist visa or green card, and says she suspects his proposal was an attempt to become an American citizen so he could tour in support of his 2013 record Woman.
In 2015, Nikolas alleges that Milosh told her he had sexually assaulted a Jamaican woman when he was in his twenties. When she demanded that Milosh reach out to the woman and apologize, Nikolas writes, “He charged at me, picked me up, pushed me on the couch, and pressed his forearm into my throat and continually screamed ‘shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up!’. I couldn’t breathe.”
Nikolas goes on to recount the dissolution of their marriage and their years-long divorce. “To this day I think he was grooming me since I was 16 years old and I think he got everything he wanted out of that situation, he got financial support as a struggling artist, a green card to continue his career, notoriety, and sex,” she concludes. “To this day I still suffer PTSD from that relationship, even doubting my own sanity on some days. Creating this open letter has shown me that I’m not insane. My wish to Milosh is for him to experience a profound metanoia and renounce all of his disturbing ways.”
In a statement shared with Pitchfork and Paste, Milosh denied the “absurd and outrageous false claims” made against him and called her open letter a her open letter “a piece of revisionist fiction.” He claimed Nikolas’ “stories [are] provably untrue” and added that he is “fully prepared to cooperate with any independent investigation into” Nikolas’ claims.