Drake Bell opens up to Josh Peck for the first time about sexual abuse he went through on Nickelodeon set
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, Celebrity, Podcast, Nickelodeon
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Josh Peck/Good Guys Podcast
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, Celebrity, Podcast, Nickelodeon
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual abuse and rape which some readers may find distressing.
Drake Bell got into the details of his abuse with Josh Peck for the first time while speaking with his former co-star in a heart wrenching confession.
Back in 2004, Drake & Josh hit TV screens on Nickelodeon and immediately became a popular staple of the channel.
As a result, the two stars Drake Bell and Josh Peck, who played step brothers with vastly different personalities, shot to stardom.
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However, during his time with Nickelodeon, Drake Bell was sexually abused by Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who worked on Nickelodeon's All That and The Amanda Show. Brian Peck has no relation to the actor Josh Peck.
38-year-old Bell first revealed this on Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV last year when the Investigation Discovery series first aired the documentary.
Recently sitting down with Josh Peck on his podcast, Good Guys, Bell opened up about the abuse as well as his emotional state then.
Back in August 2003, Peck was arrested on 11 charges related to allegations that he'd sexually abused an unnamed child.
In May 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a 14-or-15-year-old, and to oral copulation with a minor under 16.
Peck was ultimately sentenced to 16 months in prison and was also ordered to register as a sex offender in October 2004. At the time, the victim’s name was not made public.
Speaking on the podcast, Bell spoke about how being on set and working with fellow stars was where he felt comfortable but until Peck’s arrest, he still had the ‘monster’ in his 'safe place'. Bell also said the investigation was ongoing when the pair of them were shooting the pilot for the future hit show.
He said: “The big break between Drake and Josh and The Amanda Show is when I told my mum what was going on and we went to the police and the investigation, everything you saw in the documentary, that was when that was going on.
“Then when we shot the pilot, we were in the middle of the investigation but nobody knew anything because Brian hadn’t been arrested.
“I had to come back from... where the dude was, where the abuse was happening, worst part about it being... having the monster in your safe place. That was the only place I really felt comfortable when we got to set and hang out with you guys.”
The stress of the whole situation eventually took a physical toll on Bell as well. He spoke about eventually starting to lose his hair and developing ‘scabs’ on his head.
He continued: “When this drops is Josh going to look at me and be like ‘ bro you took our dream away, you took my dream away’.
“I was thinking are we going to lose our show?
“Dude I was losing my hair, I had these giants scabs on my head, I went to the doctor and he was checking me and he said ‘everything is normal but how is your stress lately?’
“I told him ‘it is actually really high’ and he went ‘well, this is what this is, all of this is from stress.’"
Peck and Bell are set to continue their chat in a follow up video that will also be shared on YouTube.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.