Drake Bell Reveals James Marsden Hasn't Apologized Since Supporting Brian Peck in Court
March 23 2024, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
Former child star Drake Bell has revealed that none of the stars who wrote letters of support for his abuser have reached out to him to apologize, RadarOnline.com can report.
James Marsden, Taran Killam, Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Joanna Kerns and the late Alan Thicke were among the 41 people who wrote letters of support asking a judge for leniency during sentencing after Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2004.
James Marsden and 40 other people wrote letters of support for the Nickelodeon dialogue coach convicted of child sexual abuse in 2004.
On a new episode of The Sarah Fraser Show podcast, Bell spoke out in his first interview since the release of Investigation Discovery's bombshell docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV revealed shocking new details.
"I haven't gotten an apology, or a sorry, from anybody that had written letters, or was involved in supporting him at all," Bell said in the interview.
A new docuseries exposed Peck as the person who sexually assaulted child star Drake Bell.
The majority of the court documents from Peck's trial, including the letters of support, had been sealed until Quiet on Set petitioned to have the case records unsealed for the documentary. Bell said he wasn't even aware of their existence at the time.
"I learned that later, I mean, there were multiple people that had supported him that went on to work on Drake & Josh," Bell explained. "And I worked with these people every day, and I thought they were my friends.
"They were people in positions of power, they were my bosses. They were directors, they were producers. It was a situation where I thought I was surrounded by, I thought I was safe. I thought, okay, the cancer has been carved out, we’re better now. And I had no idea that for four years, I was working alongside people who had supported him, and probably in the back of their mind were thinking of me in a certain way, and I thought they were my friends."
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Bell was 15-years-old when the abuse started.
On an episode of their Pod Meets World podcast last month, Boy Meets World stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle claimed that Peck manipulated them into supporting him and that they "weren't told the whole story."
"To sit there and say, 'Yes, I did this, but it’s not how they're painting it' — I mean, I can't imagine framing it in a way where 41 people, adults, say 'Oh, well that totally makes sense, how you're telling me, that makes sense,'" Bell said.
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"I have now learned that my letter of support was based on complete misinformation. Knowing what I know now, I never would have written the letter," Joanna Kerns said in a follow-up statement used in the docuseries.
"Tom DeSanto, the producer from X-Men, he released an apology statement, which I really appreciate," Bell added. "This is a very, very tough thing for everyone involved, and that’s what happens when people like Brian do what they do — it creates a ripple effect. And so that was really cool of him to do."
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