- Former child star Drake Bell opened up in the Quiet on Set docuseries about the abuse he experienced as a kid at the hands of his then-dialogue coach and manager Brian Peck
- The singer tells PEOPLE it feels like “a really nice weight” has been lifted off of him since he spoke about his experience on the Investigation Discovery docuseries one year ago
- Bell says his inner circle, religion and group therapy help him navigate what he went through: “You hear these other stories and you’re like, ‘I’m not the only one'”
One year ago, Drake Bell made possibly the biggest reveal of his life when he shared in the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries that he’d experienced sexual abuse as a child star from his then-dialogue coach Brian Peck.
“It’s been a really nice weight lifted,” Bell, 38, tells PEOPLE on the anniversary of Quiet on Set’s premiere. “It’s a roller coaster of emotions. I don’t want to sugarcoat it and make the message, ‘Hey, all you got to do is just tell somebody and get your story out and when you wake up the next day, it’s going to be gone and everything’s going to be fine and you’re going to walk through life without any pain or sorrow or sadness!’ It’s always going to be there, but it’s a lot nicer getting support.”
Peck, who served as Bell’s manager, was arrested in 2003 on 11 charges that included sodomy, performing a lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance. Before his sentencing the following year, dozens of actors, including James Marsden, Taran Killam, Alan Thicke and Boy Meets World stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong, wrote letters in support of Peck, now 64.
Since coming forward as the unnamed child star involved in the 2004 case, Bell says some people who wrote letters in support of Peck reached out to him with messages along the lines of: “I was completely lied to and bamboozled by this person, and it was a totally different story that was told to me. I would’ve never written that letter. I’m so ashamed.”
“It’s nice to hear those kinds of things,” the Drake & Josh actor adds.
Other survivors have also gotten in touch with Bell over the last year, too.
“It’s really great to have experiences now where, instead of walking through the airport and having people come up and ask for a selfie, they’re coming up and sharing their stories and saying, ‘I watched your documentary and after your interview, I opened up to my husband. It’s something I’ve never told anybody,’” the “I Kind of Relate” singer says. “I didn’t expect to have for the piece to have that kind of impact on people.”
Bell admits that sometimes, he’s still taken aback by how “everybody knows my secrets” now.
“It’s still like, wow, everybody knows my past and everybody knows my life,” he says. “But at the same time, it’s nice because my fans, they’re going back to my older songs from Telegraph, for example, which was written and produced while I was experiencing everything. It’s all in that record lyrically. Fans are now going back to those records and going, ‘This song hits so much harder. He’s been screaming from the mountaintops since Day 1.’”
The Nickelodeon vet calls it “heartbreaking,” but adds, “It’s nice artistically to have fans go back into your catalog and realize, ‘This is what he was really trying to say.’”
Today, Bell continues to heal with the help of his loved ones, his faith and therapy.
“Hearing other people’s stories in group therapy and thinking to yourself, ‘Oh, wow, that was a really heavy story. That’s what you’ve experienced in your life, maybe I feel a little comfortable to share my story and then maybe I can empathize with others.’ Because when you go through something like this, one of the main things is you’re alone,” the actor says. “But then you hear these other stories and you’re like, ‘I’m not the only one.”
Faith drives Bell in a similar way. “Having a higher power, knowing that you’re not alone in this universe, you don’t have to do it on your own, there’s always somebody looking out for you plays a big part in it,” he says.
Being a dad to a 3-year-old son, who he welcomed with his ex-wife Janet Von Schmeling, keeps him grounded, too. “Having my son has shed a big light on the important things in life,” Bell, who is currently on tour in support of his latest album, Non-Stop Flight, says. “You grow up real quick when you have a little guy.”
One year after Quiet on Set’s debut, Bell feels that the world finally knows everything about him: “With the record, with the documentary, with Google, I don’t think there’s much left.”
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Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming now on Max.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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