Child Stars Who Bravely Exposed How They Were Mistreated
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Being famous is no easy feat. In addition to having the world watching your every move, friends, family, and even managers might not bat an eye at taking advantage of you. And, of course, that’s especially the case with child stars.
Most recently, for example, many child stars opened up about mistreatment in the TV series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. Among the never-before-seen confessions and clips, former Drake & Josh star Drake Bell admitted to being sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck at just 15 years old. “I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation,” he remembered, per Variety.
And while Bell’s confession is beyond heartbreaking, he isn’t the only child star who’s been mistreated, on set and beyond, over the years. To check out more stars who have bravely opened up about the mistreatment, bullying and abuse they’ve endured, scroll below.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, harassment or violence, you can get help. To speak with someone who is trained to help with these situations, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or chat online at online.rainn.org.
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Drake Bell
For the first time ever, Bell opened up about being sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck at just 15 years old. According to Bell, who opened up on Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, it all started when he slept over at Peck’s home because he and his family lived far away from set.
“I was sleeping on the couch where I would usually sleep. I woke up to him — I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me,” Bell remembered, per Variety. “I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation.”
After not knowing how to handle to situation, or how to ask for help, the abuse only got worse. “He figured out how to convince my mom and everyone around to, anytime I would have an audition or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. I was just trapped. I had no way out,” said Bell. “The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal. I don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera, really… Why don’t you think of the worst stuff that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault, and then I’ll answer your question. I don’t know how else to put it.”
In 2003, Peck was arrested on 11 charges and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Shane E. Lyons
Former All That cast member Shane E. Lyons also had an unfortunate experience with Peck.
According to the former actor, Peck once asked him if he knew what “blue balls” were, per the Los Angeles Times. “I just didn’t know what they were,” he remembered on Quiet on Set. “And he goes, ‘Well, we know what blue balls are. Right, Shane? I said, ‘Yeah, like racquetballs. All right, I’m a kid. 13, 14. As I think back now, as an adult, as a 36-year-old, I would never have a conversation with a 13-year-old boy like he had with me. It makes absolutely zero sense.”
Raquel Lee Bolleau
Child star Raquel Lee Bolleau remembered a harrowing experience on the set of The Amanda Show during Quiet on Set.
In one scene, Amanda Bynes’ character was instructed to spit in her face. Of course, that was a less-than-pleasant experience for Bolleau, especially with a few takes.
“Everybody thought it was so funny. Ha ha. Everybody’s laughing. Me? I did not find it funny,” she remembered, per Los Angeles Times.
“I was so mad that the director hurried and put me on the side of the set and was like, ‘Listen, Raquel. Breathe in, breathe out. She’s the star of the show,'” Bolleau remembered. “He said, ‘Don’t make too much of a problem. I’m going to ask her not to spit in your face. But you have to keep your cool.’”
Bryan Hearne
Former All That star Bryan Hearne remembered being ridiculed in many moments throughout the show. In one scene, he wore a superhero outfit that resembled male genitalia.
“The thing that made it most uncomfortable was feeling uncomfortable but turning around and looking at the adults around you and seeing they were laughing, so you try to just grin and bear it,” Hearne told Collider.
“As a child being 12 or 13 and already feeling uncomfortable in your body, and then you’re being asked to do things that you don’t feel comfortable with by adults supervising you, and you don’t get to say, I don’t really enjoy this, without being afraid of losing your job,” he remembered.
Alexa Nikolas
Alexa Nikolas has been outspoken about the mistreatment she received while filming Zoey 101. In one Instagram Live in 2019, Nikolas remembered being bullied by co-star Jamie Lynn Spears, per The Hollywood Reporter. One day, after Nikolas told production about what was going on, she was allegedly taken to Spears’ trailer with her sister Britney Spears.
“My mom didn’t even know where I was in that moment and that was child endangerment,” Nikolas told the outlet. “Imagine if it wasn’t Britney and Jamie. Imagine if it was [convicted child sex abuser] Brian Peck on the other side. Which is why, when you’re a talent coordinator, you have to tell the parents where you are taking the children.”
Speaking of their infamous showrunner, Nikolas also had terrible experiences. “Dan was just horrible,” she said. “He was saying malicious things, like, ‘Alexa needs to stop crying about being bullied. This is not about her. She needs to put her feelings aside [because] this is a professional work environment.'”
Eventually, her mom threatened to sue and Nikolas left the show after two seasons.
Jennette McCurdy
iCarly alum Jennette McCurdy got candid about her difficult upbringing in her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. In addition to having a controlling mother, an unidentified person, named “Creator,” made her on-set experience terrible too.
“My whole childhood and adolescence were very exploited,” McCurdy told the New York Times ahead of the release. “It still gives my nervous system a reaction to say it. There were cases where people had the best intentions and maybe didn’t know what they were doing. And also cases where they did — they knew exactly what they were doing.”
McCurdy goes on to write about being pressured to drink from the “Creator,” feeling trapped in her contract while on Sam & Cat and detailing one alleged incident where she was photographed in a bikini during a wardrobe fitting, per New York Post.
Alyson Stoner
Camp Rock alum Alyson Stoner admitted in an op-ed to People in 2021 the long-term consequences of child stardom.
Remembering her hectic work schedule when she was just 12 years old, she revealed how work would affect her physically. “My body is medically undernourished and chronically stressed, which later will evolve into severe eating disorders, adrenal fatigue and mandatory bedrest,” she remembered. “The onset of puberty has turned my waist and bust into the main objects of attention and inspection. This will also categorize my career trajectory.”
Ariel Winter
Modern Family‘s Ariel Winter, who started acting at just 4 years old, has been candid about her life under her mother Crystal Workman’s strict rules. In addition to not being able to have female friendships, and having a very “restrictive,” Winter remembers being sexualized very young too.
“[I wore] the smallest miniskirts, sailor suits, low-cut things, the shortest dresses you’ve ever seen,” Winter told The Hollywood Reporter. “People thought I was 24 when I was 12. If there was going to be a nude scene when I was that age, my mother would have a thousand percent said yes.”
Macaulay Culkin
One of the biggest child stars in the world Macaulay Culkin has long talked about being mistreated by her own father, Kit Culkin.
“He was a bad man,” Culkin said in Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast in 2018, per UpRoxx. “He was abusive. Physically and mentally. He was just a bad dude. A bad abusive man. He was a piece of work.”
“I’m going around the country locked in a room with a man who didn’t like me,” he said.
Once his parents separated in 1994, Culkin finally felt free to leave the industry.
Cole Sprouse
While Cole Sprouse’s experience may not compare to fellow child actors in this list, the actor has been open about the effect working on a set had on his personal development.
“When you’re a child actor, you’re a minor, and so a lot of the larger business decisions that are controlling your career are outside your agency,” Sprouse told Variety in 2019. “One of the dangers of, at least in my position, which was a sitcom inside a sound stage for nine years with Disney Channel, you’re raised in such an insular environment that you forget what real human experience or boots-on-the-ground actually looks like.”
Raven Symoné
As an early global superstar, Raven Symoné felt the pressures of looking the part in her show That’s So Raven.
“I remember not being able to have the bagel or anything at — we would call it crafty, where it’s just a table of food, ready for you to eat whatever you want,” she told The View, per Business Insider. “And I remember people would be like, ‘You can’t eat that. You’re getting fat!’ I’m like, ‘I’m 7! I’m hungry!'”
Aaron Carter
The late Aaron Carter was also vocal about the abuse he endured from his parents.
According to the late actor and singer, his parents spent more than $500 million of his money buying 15 houses and 30 cars, per Buzzfeed. When they sold the properties sold the houses, he didn’t get a cut of the profits.
Christy Carlson Romano
Christy Carlson Romano, who starred in Even Stevens, also felt pressure from her parents. According to a 2021 interview with Buzzfeed News, her mom’s desire to see her succeed often clouded what she really wanted for her own life.
“My mom and I became a team … and so I felt like I couldn’t let my teammate down,” she told the outlet. “And that might actually not have been the true case. I think my mom would have been just fine if I had stopped doing this. … I didn’t really know whether or not stopping was a true thing to do, but it felt like I’d be letting her down.”
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore also had quite a rocky beginning to her career, with an alcohol and drug problem developing since her early teens.
Talking about how her family dealt with her issues, Barrymore says they took her to a mental institution against her will. “Yeah, my mom locked me up in an institution. Boo hoo! But it did give an amazing discipline,” Barrymore told The Guardian in 2015. “It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it. I needed that whole insane discipline. My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There was something very abnormal, and I needed some severe shift.”
Upon release, she emancipated herself from her parents.
Brooke Shields
Much like Barrymore, Brooke Shields also had a contentious relationship with her mother.
According to Shields’ documentary Pretty Baby, her mom, Teri, not only made all of her business decisions, including posing for Playboy at age 10, but sat next to her in every interview.
After many years Shields fired Teri, who suffered from alcoholism. “Eventually she surfaced, and she just couldn’t believe [it],” she remembered, per Pop Sugar. “I’m just so sorry. I didn’t know any other way,” she told her mom.
