Related Articles
Drake Bell knew Josh Peck would always be there to pick him up when he was down.
In a new interview with the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Bell, who revealed in the docuseries Quiet on Set that he was sexually abused by voice coach Brian Peck, shared that Josh (no relation to Brian) was there for him around the time when he was being abused.
Bell also thanked Peck — with whom he co-starred on Drake & Josh — for his support in private after he came forward with the allegations last month.
“Josh worked onThe Amanda Show, so he saw and knew what was going on,” said Bell on the April 2 episode. “I appreciate that he reached out to me privately and he didn’t go straight to the media, because he was there with me and saw what I was going through.”
Bell shared that Peck didn’t know the exact nature of the abuse he was facing as it was happening. “Of course, watching the documentary, he learned so much of what I’d gone through that I think he was just so sensitive and made sure to reach out to me privately,” he said.
Peck shared his support for Bell and his Nickelodeon peers who spoke out in an Instagram note, saying he needed a “few days to process” the Investigation Discovery series. He said wanted “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.”
Peck continued: “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.”
Around that time, Peck was receiving heated comments on social media for not speaking up in the wake of the docuseries. Bell effectively asked fans to stop onTikTokshortly after, saying: “Processing this and going through this is a really emotional time, and a lot of it’s very, very difficult, so not everything is put out to the public.”
Noting that Peck had in fact contacted him, he added: “It’s been very sensitive, but he has reached out to talk with me and help me work through this. And he’s been really, really great.”
Brian Peck was arrested on 11 charges of child sexual abuse in 2003, and a year later he pleaded no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender. The identity of the accuser was not known at the time, but it has since been revealed as Bell.
