Drake Bell reveals how ‘child endangerment case’ turned his life around
Drake Bell spoke about the accusations against him while talking about the sexual abuse he faced himself.
In the new Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, the Drake & Josh actor broke silence on the repeated sexual abuse he faced as a teenager, perpetrated by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck.
Drake talked about the darker side of his life in the final segment of the four-part series.
“There was definitely a slow decline in my mental health and sobriety, I mean, DUIs, behaviors that were happening because I was, I was lost,” he said.
In 2021, Drake was found guilty of “attempted child endangerment” and “a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.”
The accusations also included inappropriate text messages he sent to a teenage girl in 2017 which landed him in probation for two years, with added 200 hours of community service.
“I took responsibility for that, you know, I did what was asked of me, but the media grabbed a hold of so much misinformation, and it absolutely destroyed me,” Drake spoke of the child endangerment case against him.
He added, “And I started to spin out of control. If I had continued down that path, that could very likely be the end of my story. I was at rock bottom, and so I checked into treatment, and I got to go through a lot of trauma therapy, a lot of grief therapy, and be surrounded by people who, for the first time in a long time, wanted to just see me get better.”