Weeks after revealing that he was sexually assaulted as a teen, Drake Bell is denying grooming a teenage girl. Even though he was arrested on charges related to "crimes against a child," he stands by his claim that his actions were inappropriate but not to the degree the courts were saying, even though he pleaded guilty. Last month, Drake made headlines when he spoke for the first time about being sexually assaulted while he was working on Nickelodeon, sharing the news in the docuseries Quiet on Set. Three years ago, he found himself back in court trying to beat the allegations that he had groomed a teenage girl, and he pleaded guilty at the time. But now, he’s trying to add some clarity to his decisions regarding the case.
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Drake claims he couldn't afford to plead not guilty.
This week, Drake opened up about the case, calling the allegations "not true" and saying he only pleaded guilty because his family was financially "devastated" at the time. While appearing on the Not Skinny, But Not Fat podcast, he explained, "I responded on some DMs and was incredibly irresponsible and got myself into conversations that I shouldn’t have had."
He pleaded guilty and received probation.
"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, and it just turned into this big thing," he continued.
In June 2021, Drake pleaded guilty to a felony, attempted child endangerment, and a misdemeanor, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
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He claims he regrets pleading guilty.
"I had just had a son, and I didn’t want to put my family through all of this anymore," Drake explained. "I ended up going through the process the way that I did. Very regretful." He then said that he stopped talking to the woman, whom he had been talking to for three years, as soon as he found out she was only 15.
"I was doing everything I could to kind of keep my distance," he shared. "A lot of the things she said about sending inappropriate pictures and things like this, it was able to be investigated and show that none of that existed."
Drake did acknowledge his wrongdoing.
Drake shared that he took "responsibility" for "having those conversations" with the minor. He then seemed to allude to the experiences he had as a teen as a reason for his behavior.
"There’s just so much that I’ve had to deal with, and through that, like I said, not having the tools or not knowing how to process things, I made a lot of decisions in my life that I shouldn’t have made and hurt a lot of people."
He's trying to do better for himself and deal with his issues.
now, it seems that he may finally be doing the necessary work to overcome the hard parts of his past.
"But now, where I am in my life now, I think that I’m finally at a place where I can process and deal with this through therapy, that I’ve been through and actively going through, unearthing all of these things and being able to face them head-on for, really, the first time in my life," he said.
