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Drake Bell Slams Rider Strong and Will Friedle for Supporting Brian Peck Amid Abuse Case
Drake Bell slammed Rider Strong and Will Friedle after the former Boy Meets World stars supported his abuser, Brian Peck.
The drama began when fellow Nickelodeon alum Alexis Nikolas called out Rider, 44, and Will, 47, in an Instagram post on March 15 after they discussed previously working on Brian, 63, on their “Pod Meets World” podcast. Alexis, 31, alleged that Rider and Will chose the success of Boy Meets World over publicly defending Drake, 37, after he accused Brian of sexual abuse when he was underage.
Several fans rushed to the comments section to point out that Rider and Will did address their complicated relationship with Brian on the February 19 episode of their podcast, and Drake, 37, chimed in to call out Rider and Will in the comments section. “Will was 27 years old and Brian told him what he did. Many people turned away and said no I won’t write a letter but they did. Will was not manipulated,” he wrote. “Brian admitted it to him and he wrote the letter anyway.”
After noting that Will was among the people to write letters of support for Brian during his 2004 trial, Drake explained that “he worked with me on many many episodes of spider man years later and never said a word to me about it.”
“This is because they were told their letters are going to be made public. Everyone thought the letters would be sealed forever and no one would ever see them,” he continued. “This is their publicist telling them how to get ahead of the story.”
Several fans argued that Rider and Will were too young to understand the situation when Brian was arrested, though Drake insisted they were mature enough to grasp the severity of the case. “No he wasn’t. RIDER WAS 24 years old when he wrote the letter and was told by Brian what he did,” Drake claimed. “He wrote the letter anyway.”
Brian was arrested in August 2003 on 11 charges after he was accused of sexually abusing an underaged child, who remained anonymous at the time. He pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a victim and to oral copulation with a child under 16 years old in May 2004. Brian was sentenced to serve 16 months in prison, while he also had to register as a sex offender in October 2004.
Drake came forward as the minor in the case in Investigation Discovery’s docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which was released on March 17 and 18.
Before the docuseries premiered, Rider and Will addressed the close friendship they created with Brian when he guest starred on Boy Meets World during their “Pod Meets World” podcast.
“He didn’t say that nothing had happened. So by the time we heard about this case and knew anything about it, it was always in the context of, ‘I did this thing, I am guilty. I am going to take whatever punishment the government determines, but I’m a victim of jailbait. There was this hot guy! I just did this thing and he’s underage.’ And we bought that storyline,” Rider recalled. “I never heard about the other things because, back then, you couldn’t Google to find out what people were being charged with. So in retrospect, he was making a plea deal and admitting one thing — which is all he admitted to us — but it looks like he was being charged with a series of crimes, which we did not know.”
Will also admitted he regrets attending Brian’s sentencing during the podcast. “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,’” he stated. “I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ It was horrifying all the way around.”
If you or anyone you know has been sexually abused, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.
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