PREVIEW

Josh Peck shows support for Drake Bell amid sexual abuse allegations. The actor released a statement in support of his Drake & Josh co-star on Thursday, weeks after Drake revealed he was sexually abused by his dialogue coach Brian Peck during his time at Nickelodeon. Drake opened up about the abuse, which began when he was 15, in the new docuseries Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which highlights allegations of abusive and toxic workplaces on the sets of several Nickelodeon shows. ”I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it. I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world.” "Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.” Josh's post comes a day after Drake, 37, asked fans to "take it a little easy" on Josh after he was criticised for not speaking out about Drake's allegations following the release of the docuseries. "It's been very sensitive, but he has reached out to talk with me and help me work through this and has been really, really great. So I just wanted to let you guys know that and to take it a little easy on him.” The actors starred alongside each other in Drake & Josh from 2004 to 2007. Josh has since explained that they drifted apart after the show ended. THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT