Drake Bell talks about facing abuse, says Josh Peck “reached out” to offer support to him

Washington [US], March 22 (ANI): American actor and musician Drake Bell revealed that his ‘Drake & Josh’ co-star Josh Peck has “reached out” to him and helped him after he revealed in ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV’ that he was abused, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the four-part docuseries, the actor-musician opened up about his story of alleged abuse by his former dialogue coach, Brian Peck. Viewers have now learned that Bell, who was a minor at 15 years of age at the time, was at the centre of that criminal case and conviction.

Following the revelations about allegations of abuse, some fans took to Josh Peck’s social media to criticize him for staying silent.

Later, after the second part of the docuseries was released, Bell decided to take to TikTok to ask fans to “take it a little easy” on Josh Peck.

“I just want to clear something up,” he said in the video. “I’ve noticed a lot of comments on some of Josh’s TikToks and some of his posts and I just want to let you guys know that processing this and going through this is a really emotional time and a lot of it is very, very difficult,” as quoted in The Hollywood Reporter.

Bell continued, “So not everything is put out to the public, but I just want you guys to know that he [Peck] has reached out to me, and it’s been very sensitive, but he has reached out to talk with me and help me work through this and has been really, really great. So I just wanted to let you guys know that and to take it a little easy on him.”

Josh Peck previously spoke out about his relationship with Bell, more than a decade after Drake & Josh ended. The actor admitted on a March 2022 episode of the podcast, BFFs with Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards and Brianna Chickenfry, that the pair were no longer friends.

“We were kids, right? There were times when we were closer than not, but when inevitably the show ended – I mean, we’re just totally different kids,” Josh Peck said at the time. “Drake & Josh is something I’ll be synonymous with forever, and I’m proud of it. And I want to like the guy that my name is attached to forever, but unfortunately, it just sort of worked out the way that it did,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.