Josh Peck, of the Nickelodeon hit Drake & Josh, has issued a statement of support of his old co-star Drake Bell, who recently revealed that he’d been sexually abused by a show dialogue coach when he was just 15.
In an Instagram post (see it below), Peck said, “I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it. I reached out to Drake privately, but 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.
“Children should be protected,” he 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.”
Peck had come under internet criticism for seeming to keep mum on the revelations made in the Investigation Discovery Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV documentary series. Just yesterday, Bell came to Peck’s defense, telling people to “take it a little easy on” Peck. Bell said, “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,” Bell shared in a TikTok. “So I just wanted to let you guys know that and to take it a little easy on him.”
Earlier today, Nancy Sullivan, who played Bell’s mother on the series, expressed her support for bell and her sadness over his abuse claims at the hand of former dialogue coach Brian Peck.