Josh Peck makes sad admission about co-star Drake Bell's sexual abuse as they reunite with emotional discussion
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
The stars of Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh have this week reunited, with actor Josh Peck making a gut-wrenching confession about the sexual abuse that his co-lead Drake Bell had endured at the hands of television bosses.
The duo appeared on the latest instalment of the Good Guys podcast - which Peck, 38, hosts weekly alongside Ben Soffer - during which they reflected on their on-screen childhood experience.
Tragically, however, while taking a trip down memory lane, it didn't take long for the conversation to turn to the assaults that Bell, also 38, was subjected to for several years at the hands of dialogue coach Brian Peck.
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"I don’t know if this is just because we’ve made a lot of bad choices in our lives," Bell began.
"Or if it’s just from trauma, but I have a lot of trouble remembering a lot of things."
Brian was arrested in 2003 for sexually abusing the young actor while the pair worked on The Amanda Show together, when Bell was just 14 and 15. During the criminal investigation, however, he continued working with Bell on the set of Nickelodeon.
Following a trial in 2004, Brian served 16 months in prison, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
Despite the sentencing, Bell wasn't revealed as Brian's victim until March of last year, when an Investigation Discovery documentary - Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV - interviewed him.
Among those kept in the dark regarding Bell's experience was his cast-mate Josh Peck, who this week sorrowfully admitted he had 'no idea' of the abuse his friend had endured.
Claiming he was unaware of past events during the pair's earliest days on the show, Peck recalled 'this separation started between us'.
"Something I feel bad about is, until you sort of shared with me what was happening, I was just looking at it through the prism of a 14-year-old's brain going like, 'Ahhhh he doesn't want much to do with me'," Peck explained.
"And thankfully, everyone who did know was galvanising around you, because God knows you needed the support and deserved every inch of it, I just didn't know any of this at 14."
He continued: "And then watching the documentary at 38, as a father, as a grownup, so much was revealed to me and of what you had to go through, and I can't even imagine that."
Recalling being on set with the man that had abused him as a teenager, Bell went on to describe the feeling as bittersweet, claiming he was 'happiest and most comfortable' with Peck, but that 'the monster was there'.
"Like that's where I feel safe, but it sucks because... you know, my house isn't where I feel safe, at home," he continued.
"I mean, I didn't have abusive parents or anything, but still, where I felt most comfortable and where I was the happiest was when I was on set with you guys."
Bell added of Brian's arrest: "I knew that s**t was about to hit the fan and nobody in here knows it, and I'm 14 or 15."
Peck went on to recall: "I remember we were in the car and I said, 'Do you still talk to Brian?', and you just looked at me like, 'No, Brian's a really bad guy'. And I remember thinking, 'Gotcha'.
"It was all that I needed to know, and I didn't know anything more than that but I was like, 'That's clear, gotcha'."
In 2021, Bell was himself sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to two charges of attempted child endangerment, relating to a 15-year-old girl he'd met online that attended one of his 2017 concerts.
Discussing this verdict in relation to the abuse he endured, Bell told TODAY last year: "I think that there is a picture that a lot of people are painting of a cycle of abuse - 'Oh, well, he did to someone else what has been done to him'.
"But it’s a very difficult parallel to make between that and what I endured at 14 years old, the physical abuse that I went through, the things that [Brian] had done to me over and over and over, and how dark it got."
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: Celebrity, Crime, TV And Film, US News
Rhianna Benson