Will Friedle claims he was unaware Drake Bell was Brian Peck’s victim at the time that the former producer was facing eight counts of sexual abuse.
In the Thursday, June 20, episode of his ”Pod Meets World” podcast, Friedle spoke for the first time about his experience leading up to and during the 2003 trial. Friedle, 47, noted that he wrote a letter of support for Peck at the time, but claimed it was under the pretext that the then-unnamed victim was “almost 18” and that it was a “one-time incident.”
It was not until he was in the courtroom and saw Bell, whom he did not recognize, that he knew he had been lied to. (Friedle’s cohost and Boy Meets World costar Rider Strong also wrote a letter in support of Peck and also claimed to have not known Bell was the victim.)
“I’m sitting in the back of the courtroom,” Friedle recalled. “There’s no social media. I’m 26 years old at the time. I don’t watch Nickelodeon. I don’t know who Drake Bell is. I see a kid walk into the courtroom and I’m like, OK, I’ve been lied to. Automatically I know this.”
Years later, Friedle says the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which was released in March 2024, woke him up to what actually happened. The Max docuseries brought to light, among other things, the nature of Peck’s abuse against Bell.
“It’s going to be life-long processing for me. I knew I had been lied to and manipulated by Brian, essentially from the courtroom, but I didn’t know how much until I saw the documentary. And then I really didn’t know how much until I spoke with Drake,” Friedle said.
Though Friedle and Bell worked together years later on Ultimate Spider-Man, Bell revealed in the documentary that he never received an apology.
On the podcast, Friedle and Strong both spoke about finally getting in touch with Bell after the documentary aired. Strong reached out via Instagram DMs and talked to Bell over the phone. After their conversation, Bell posted via X on April 5, “I just had the most amazing conversation with @RiderStrong. We are all healing together. I have nothing but love and forgiveness for him.”
When Friedle and Bell had a chance to talk, Friedle reiterated that he did not know Bell was the one in the courtroom.
“We both talked about how happy we were that was the case because we had the best day working together,” he said. “All I wanted to do from the day in that courtroom was apologize to whoever was there. The idea that I found out later that he was standing in front of me and I did not have that [chance] was nuts.”
From here, Friedle indicated he would need to learn from the experience and do what he can to continue making things right with Bell.
“There comes a point where you have to look at yourself and go, I have to be OK that I made a huge mistake, that I owe this person an enormous apology, that it’s not going to be enough and I’m going to spend a ton of time apologizing to this person,” he said. “You have to use that to move on and become a better person yourself.”
