Drake Bell is healing alongside Rider Strong.
Strong, who became close friends with dialogue coach Brian Peck after meeting on “Boy Meets World,” was one of the many actors who wrote a letter in defense of Peck’s character when Bell accused him of sexual assault in 2003.
At the time, the victim of the assault was listed as John Doe, but Bell came forward revealing it was him in Investigation Discovery’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.” (At the time, Peck pleaded no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse, was sentenced to 16 months in prison and had to register as a sex offender.)
Now, more than 20 years later, Bell and Strong have connected. “I just had the most amazing conversation with @RiderStrong we are all healing together. I have nothing but love and forgiveness for him,” Bell posted on X on Friday.
The tweet comes less than a month after the “Drake & Josh” star called out Strong via social media. “RIDER WAS 24 years old when he wrote the letter and was told by Brian what he did,” he wrote in a since-deleted comment via Instagram. “He wrote the letter anyway.”
Ahead of the “Quiet on Set” doc, Strong and Will Friedle spoke out on their “Pod Meets World” podcast about their experience with Peck; Friedle sharing that in addition to writing a letter, he also appeared in court to defend Peck. At the time, he had been groomed and manipulated by the acting coach, something he later realized.
“We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything … The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid,’” Friedle said during the episode. “I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ It was horrifying all the way around.”
Bell, for his part, recalled walking into the court room and addressing all the child stars he saw on Peck’s side. “I looked at all of them and I just said, ‘How dare you?’ I said, ‘You will forever have the memory of sitting in this courtroom and defending this person,” he said in the doc. “And I will forever have the memory of the person you’re defending violating me and doing unspeakable acts and crimes, and that’s what I will remember.’”
Via social media, Bell posted that Friedle “never said a word to me about it” when they later worked together on “Ultimate Spider-Man” in 2012, and claimed he and Strong only spoke out when they found out their “letters are going to be made public” in the doc.
Source Agencies
