Drake Bell Reveals More Hidden, Painful Truths

Millennial nostalgia gets a reality check when Drake Bell climbs back into the hot seat on Jade Iovine’s Live From Bed and shares even more of the trauma he endured behind Nickelodeon’s bright-orange facade. The conversation is raw, heartbreaking, and—thanks to Bell’s candor—impossible to ignore. However, it also presents a necessary lesson that we all need to learn for the benefit of both ourselves and the child stars of the future: Fame is nice to have, but it is never worth the price of your safety—or your freedom.

Facing the memories

Iovine sets the mood from the jump: “Today’s episode is tough. There’s no other way to put it.” Bell agrees without flinching. “It is. I mean, I don’t want to have to talk about it all the time,” he tells her, adding that every new interview forces him to reopen wounds he thought had finally scabbed over.

Yet Bell still pulls back the curtain. “I told my story and it was difficult enough to do that in a public forum,” he says. The revelation—first shared in the controversial 2024 Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet On Set—detailed childhood sexual abuse by convicted predator Brian Peck (no relation to longtime friend, and Drake & Josh costar, Josh Peck).  But the aftermath, says Bell, still lingers. “I wasn’t really planning on going in interviews and talking about it over and over and over again,” he says.

The complicated gift of speaking up

One unexpected silver lining keeps him talking. “The cool thing that I wasn’t expecting after sharing my story,” Bell says, is that fans now “come up and share their stories with me.” Survivors have told him that hearing his experience gave them the courage to open up to spouses, therapists, and even legislators.

Still, each retelling reopens those old scars. Bell remembers thinking, “Oh God, I can’t believe I did this. I can’t believe everyone’s gonna know my story.” The stress broke his body as well as his spirit, recalling, “I went to the doctor and had these big scabs on my head…it was caused by stress.”

When the system fails child stars

Bell pulls no punches about Hollywood enablers. He reads a handwritten “character letter” submitted during Peck’s sentencing—one that pinned blame on a teenage Bell and called Peck a “sweet and caring man.” The betrayal still stings. “I woke up to it,” Bell says, voice cracking as he recalls the abuse and the industry adults who excused it.

Those same letters helped Peck secure a lighter sentence, a fact the presiding judge called “very, very lucky.” Bell’s takeaway is chilling: Predatory power still talks loudest in children’s television.

Why Drake Bell took a plea—and why he doesn’t regret it

Internet critics often point to Bell’s 2021 guilty plea (for “disseminating matter harmful to juveniles”) as proof he’s “no better” than his abuser. Bell tackles that narrative head-on. Facing a choice between a $900,000 jury trial and time with his newborn son, he told his attorney, “I want the one where I don’t miss a day in California with my son.”

Bell admits the plea was “devastating,” but he stands by it. “No, I don’t really regret it,” he tells Iovine. The alternative meant dragging his family through weeks of testimony and a tabloid circus. “That’s not what my wife needed to deal with after just having a child,” he explains.

The roller coaster of recovery

Healing, Bell says, isn’t linear. “Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down,” and recording the podcast feels like therapy in real time. “As I’m talking, it’s almost like therapy,” he remarks. He’s quick to credit friends who stayed, including former Drake & Josh cast members who rejected Brian Peck’s legal team. One quietly told Brian Peck’s lawyer, “That’s my boy,” before storming out of a meeting.

Those loyalties matter. Bell notes that Nickelodeon executives never offered counseling or HR support, leaving producers—his makeshift family—to pick up the pieces.

Building a safer future for the next generation

Today, parenting fuels Bell’s forward motion. Asked what he wants for his son, he answers plainly: “Just let him be a kid and know that he’s a kid.” Protection—and the freedom to “wander and wonder”—remain his top priorities.

Drake Bell doesn’t pretend every day feels triumphant. But by sharing unfiltered truths, he’s turning personal pain into public accountability. Whether listeners feel “conflicted, frustrated, moved, or uncomfortable,” as Iovine puts it, the episode makes one fact impossible to dispute: Drake Bell refuses to let silence win.