‘7TH HEAVEN’ CONFESSION
Accused kid-molest star tells ‘the truth’
Two months after audio recordings of Stephen Collins confessing to molesting underage girls were released, the “7th Heaven” star has issued a statement admitting to his crimes.
“Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret,” the 67yearold actor told People. Collins exposed himself to three girls between 1973 and 1994.
“I have been working to atone for it ever since,” he went on. “I’ve decided to address these issues publicly because two months ago, various news organizations published a recording by my thenwife, Faye Grant, during a confidential marriage therapy session in January 2012. This session was recorded without the therapist’s or my knowledge or consent.”
In the recordings, he described the events that occurred 20, 32 and 40 years ago. “The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far beyond what actually occurred,” he said. “As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth.”
He continued, “I did have an opportunity to do so with one of the women, 15 years later,” he said. “I apologized and she was extraordinarily gracious. But after I learned in the course of my treatment that being direct about such matters could actually make things worse for them by opening old wounds, I have not approached the other two women, one of whom is now in her 50s and the other in her 30s.”
Collins, who is divorcing Grant, is seeking $1 million from her for secretly recording the private therapy session and leaking it to the media. Grant also called Collins a “pedophile” and “sociopath” in private emails she sent to one of his victims.
Their divorce trial is postponed until January.
On Friday, a detailed interview with Collins by Katie Couric is expected to air on ABC’s “20/20.”
Collins also made it very clear that he has not “had any impulse to act out in any such way” in the last 20 years.