Drake Bell is explaining why he chose to plead guilty to child endangerment charges in 2021. While appearing on the April 2 episode of Dear Media’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the former Nickelodeon star said his family played a role in his legal decision.
“I had just had a son and I didn’t want to put my family through all of this anymore,” Drake, 37, told host Amanda Hirsch. “I ended up going through the process the way that I did. Very regretful.”
Drake and his estranged wife Janet Von Schmeling share a 2-year-old son named Jeremy. The couple are currently going through a divorce after nearly five years of marriage.
Back in 2021, Drake pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. In his recent interview, the Drake & Josh star admitted that he responded to some DMs and “got myself into conversations that I shouldn’t have had.”
“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 said. “I was being investigated and that was really difficult on my family. Thankfully, through 18 months of subpoenaing my phones and computers and witnesses, it turned out that most of what was being accused of me was not true.”
While Drake took responsibility for having conversations with the underage girl, he denied the claims that he groomed her.
Drake also said he ceased communication with the unnamed woman, to whom he had been talking to for three years, as soon as he found out she was 15 years old.
“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 said. “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 and unearthing all of these things and being able to face them head-on for, really, the first time in my life. It’s an emotional roller coaster.”
Today, Drake is focused on being the best father to his son as they build a bond off of social media.
“He’s incredible and we have a great relationship,” Drake shared. “He really is the motivation to continue to keep going.”