“Be a little gentler with him”

“He reached out to me to talk and help me through it, and it was really great,” Bell said of the “Drake & Josh” costar.

Drake Bell defends his Drake and Josh Costar Josh Peck for not publicly commenting on the explosive new docuseries Silence on the Set: The Dark Side of Children’s Televisionin which Bell revealed that he was molested as a teenager.

In a TikTok video posted Wednesday, Bell defended Peck against fans who speculated that his former partner was unsupportive of him after he detailed the abuse he suffered at the hands of a Nickelodeon coach when he was 15 years old. “I just want to clarify something. ”Bell said in the recording. “I’ve been noticing a lot of comments on some of Josh’s TikToks and some of his posts and I just want to let you know that it’s really, you know… processing this and going through this is a really emotional time and a lot of it is very, very difficult. Therefore, not everything is made public.”

Bell explained that Peck, who recently appeared in Oppenheimer, discussed the matter with him privately. “I just want you to know that he contacted me and it was very sensitive,” he said. “He reached out to me to talk and help me through it, and it was really great.”

Bell concluded his remarks with a call for less harsh treatment of Peck. “So I just wanted to let you know and go easy on him.”

Peck’s representatives did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.

In Investigation Discovery Silence on the set, Bell publicly acknowledged for the first time that she was the anonymous teenage victim who reported being sexually assaulted by Amanda’s show dialogue coach Brian Peck. Josh Peck, who has no connection to the convicted child molester, was not involved in the docuseries.

Drake and Josh, Created and executive produced by Dan Schneider, the series aired on Nickelodeon for four seasons beginning in 2004, the same year Brian Peck was convicted.

Last week, Bell called out A boy learns about the world actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle for writing letters of support for their abuser during the sentencing hearing.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual harassment, text “STRENGTH” to Crisis Text Line 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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