Drake Bell Denies Allegations of Abuse Made By Ex-Girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt

The Deadline Team
·2 min read

Former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell has denied ex-girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt’s misconduct allegations. In a TikTok video, Lingafelt, an artist, who goes by the name Jimi Ono, accused the actor of verbal and physical abuse.

“I never abused my ex-girlfriend or did so many of the other things Melissa falsely claimed on her Tik Tok video,” Bell said in a statement released to People. “As our relationship ended—more than a decade ago—we unfortunately, both called each other terrible names, as often happens when couples are breaking up. But that is it.”

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Added the former Drake & Josh star, “Clearly, Melissa still felt close enough to me just last year that she was comfortable reaching out to ask me to provide her with financial support during a tough time (which I did). I do not know if today’s behavior is some kind of misguided quest for more money or attention. But I cannot and will not allow these offensive and defamatory allegations to go unchallenged and I am reviewing my legal options.”

In her TikTok video, Lingafelt said she was 16 years old when she started dating Bell.

“I moved in with him, I was singing,” she said, showing a series of photos of them together. “It wasn’t until about a year when the verbal abuse started. And when I say verbal abuse, imagine the worst type of verbal abuse you could ever imagine and that was what I got.”

“it then turned into physical—hitting, throwing, everything,” Lingafelt continued. “At the pinnacle of it, he drug me down the stairs at our house in Los Feliz and my face hit every step on the way down. I have photos of this.”

Lingafelt did not show photos with that statement.

“I hope this message reaches young girls, and that no one has to go through what I did. #2020Survivor,” Lingafelt wrote in a note accompanying the video.

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