Drake Bell has no hard feelings for Josh Peck.
In Tuesday’s episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the Drake & Josh alum continued to show support for his onscreen brother — despite the fact that was slammed by fans for not speaking up about his former co-star’s abuse revelation sooner. Showing appreciation for Josh’s response to the Quiet on Set docuseries, Drake revealed:
“Josh worked on The Amanda Show, so he saw and knew what was going on. But I appreciate that he reached out to me privately and didn’t go straight to the media because he was there with me and saw what I was going through.”
Not everything needs to be made public! Reaching out privately probably felt a lot more personal to start. And especially with a terrible and tough topic like this one.
Related: Drake’s Abuser Was Pen Pals With Child Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy?!
That said, if Josh knew about the abuse, what took him so long to speak out publicly about the situation overall?? The Found a Way crooner clarified:
“I don’t think he knew specifics, but there were people who worked on the show that knew who it was. He just knew how sensitive this was for me and after watching the documentary, he learned so much that I had gone through and I think he was just so sensitive and made sure to reach out to me privately rather than just going straight to social media.”
As Perezcious readers know, Drake came forward as the previously unnamed minor involved in the 2003 sexual abuse case against Brian Peck, his former Nickelodeon dialogue coach. The court case wrapped up shortly before the actor began work on Drake & Josh. And while his identity was a secret from the public, people in the industry were well aware of his involvement — such as Will Friedle and Rider Strong, whom Brian convinced to stand by his side during the trial. Surprisingly, the singer also revealed that he doesn’t have any anger for those who were persuaded to believe the sex offender, adding:
“I think Brian was able to pull the wool over a lot of people’s eyes and paint a picture that was a far cry from reality.”
Of course, that doesn’t make it any easier to forgive them, but letting go of grudges is probably healthier for the 37-year-old’s healing process. For his part, Josh ultimately broke his silence on the documentary late last month, saying:
“I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it. I reached out to Drake privately, but want to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world. Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.”
This came after Drake publicly defended him amid harsh backlash from fans who were off-put by the fact Josh had yet to say anything about the disturbing allegations. It’s nice to see there’s no bad blood between the co-stars. We’re sure any and all support Drake can get right now is helpful as he continues to share his story.
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments (below)…
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via E! Insider/YouTube & MEGA/WENN]
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