Drake Bell says grooming allegations were ‘not true’
Actor-musician Drake Bell has finally addressed the grooming allegations he faced in 2021, where he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.
Appearing on an episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the 37year-old said, “I responded to some DMs and was incredibly irresponsible and got myself into conversations that I shouldn’t have had.” However, he denied the allegation, saying, “I ended up finding out that I was talking to someone that I shouldn’t have been talking to, and it snowballed into these allegations that were not true.”
Bell was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service in California in connection to the 2017 incident. Despite initially pleading not guilty, he ultimately pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges in 2021.
“[I] ended up pleading guilty, because financially I was just devastated, and I had just had a son and I didn’t want to put my family through all of this anymore,” he explained.
While Bell noted that the girl, who was 15 years old at the time, attended some of his concerts, he said, “I was doing everything I could to kind of keep my distance.” The Drake & Josh actor went on to claim, “A lot of the things she said about sending inappropriate pictures was investigated and none of that existed.”
The actor-musician made headlines last month after he, along with several other former Nickleodeon actors, spoke out about facing sexual abuse by dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck during his time at the network, on the documentary, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.