The stars of “Boy Meets World”, Rider Strong, Will Friedle and Danielle Fishel, opened up about being manipulated and befriended by actor Brian Peck when he guest starred on the show in the late 1990s.
Peck was later convicted of child molestation. As young stars, they spent time with Peck outside of work.
Strong and Friedle admitted Peck convinced them his victim had come on to him, and they wrote letters defending Peck in court against the victim’s mother.
'Boy Meets World' Actors Detail Past Friendship with Guest Star and Convicted Child Abuser https://t.co/z0nBSpmLtE
— People (@people) February 20, 2024
Strong said, “He didn’t say that nothing had happened.”
“So by the time we heard about this case and knew anything about it, it was always in the context of, ‘I did this thing, I am guilty. I am going to take whatever punishment the government determines, but I’m a victim of jailbait. There was this hot guy, I just did this thing and he’s underage,’” he continued.
“And we bought that storyline,” Strong admitted.
“I never heard about the other things because, back then, you couldn’t Google to find out what people were being charged with. So in retrospect, he was making a plea deal and admitting one thing, which is all he admitted to us, but it looks like he was being charged with a series of crimes, which we did not know,” he explained.
They expressed deep regret for siding with their abuser against the actual victim.
“‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you, and it doesn’t change what you did to my kid,’” Friedle recalled.
He said, “It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’”
“It was horrifying all the way around. We weren’t told the whole story, but it doesn’t change the fact that we did it. I still can’t get the words out to describe all of the things that I’m feeling inside of myself,” confessed the actor.
Friedle added, “There’s an actual victim here, and he turned us against the victim to where now we’re on his team.”
“That’s the thing where, to me, I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing],” he emphasized.
Friedle said being taken in was understandable due to their youth but supporting the abuser over the victim was something he has not been able to get over.
Friedle concluded, “Getting taken in by somebody who’s a good actor and a manipulator, I could chalk that up to being young and that’s the way it is. It’s awful. I’m going to use that for my growth as a human being, but when there’s an actual victim involved and now I’m on the abuser’s side, that’s the thing I can’t get over and haven’t been able to get over.”
The stars discussed how Peck used being gay to deflect from boundary issues with children and manipulate them into backing him in court.
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