Drake Bell Reveals Complicated Feelings Toward His Son Jeremy Potentially Going Into Acting After Sexual Abuse Revelations

Drake Bell revealed he'd been groomed and sexually abused by dialogue coach Brian Peck when he was only 15 years old in Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV .

During a panel at Investigation Discovery's FYC Event on Tuesday, April 9, the Drake and Josh star said he knows people expect him to keep his own son, Jeremy, away from acting — but his feelings on the subject are complicated due to his childhood love for the arts.

"I didn't want to do anything else," he shared with the crowd. "I didn't want to play baseball. I didn't want to play soccer at school. I wanted to get up on stage and make people laugh. I was given this outlet to be able to do that every day on a giant stage and make kids laugh all over the world."

"If that's what their calling is and that's all they want to do, I don't want to take that away from them," he added. "But I would want to make sure that if that's the path that a young artist wants to take, there're things in place that make it possible for things like what we've seen in the documentary and shared with our stories to never happen again."

As OK! previously reported, Bell publicly spoke out about his 2003 sexual abuse case against Peck for the first time in the bombshell docuseries. Although he did not go into explicit detail, the 37-year-old emotionally confessed what he'd endured had been "extensive" and "brutal."

On April 9, Bell shared he was still "reeling" from the concept of his "soul being bared to world" with the shocking revelations.

"But you see such good coming out of it," he explained. "People are approaching me at the airport on my way here and telling me their stories, and how they have the bravery to come out and speak, and how they're trying to go to their legislatures and get things changed."

"I'm in the thick of it right now," he continued. "It's having this sensitive story and something that I've held inside for so many years. You always imagine, 'OK, if I ever come out, how am I going to do it? How am I going to say it?'"

On a recent appearance on the "Man Enough" podcast, Bell claimed opening up about his history of abuse had been “very scary” but “very freeing."

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!