Josh Peck finally is offering his support to Drake Bell after the latter detailed the horrific grooming and sexual abuse he experienced while working for Nickelodeon on “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
After facing backlash for not publicly supporting his “Drake & Josh” co-star, Peck took to Instagram to explain that he waited to comment because he needed to “take a few days to process” the docuseries.
“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,” he wrote atop a black screen.
“Children should be protected,” the father of one continued. “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.”
His statement came just one day after Bell asked his supporters to “take it a little easy” on Peck, 37, who was called out for posting an “odd” video on social media rather than addressing the abuse.
“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’s very, very difficult, so not everything is put out to the public,” Bell, 37, said in a TikTok video Wednesday.
“I just want you guys to know that he 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 he’s been really, really great.”
The “Oppenheimer” star, who previously revealed that he and Bell were no longer friends, caught heat online for posting a TikTok in which he lip-synched an audio that said, “If I haven’t talked to you since 2023, take that as a f–king sign that you don’t exist to me…
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