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Were Rider Strong And Will Friedle Friends With Brian Peck? Boy Meets World Actors Talk About Guest Star Accused Of Alleged Manipulation And Grooming
Pod Meets World hosts engage in a candid discussion about the serious allegations surrounding former guest star Brian Peck, shedding light on the challenging topics of grooming and childhood sexual abuse.
Trigger Warning: The article contains references to child abuse which may be triggering for some readers
Pod Meets World hosts took a break from walking down the memory lanes of their time on Boy Meets World to discuss a more serious issue during the February 19 episode of their podcast.
Monday's episode of the Pod Meets World podcast featured hosts Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle, alongside family therapist Kati Morton, engaging in a discussion around Brian Peck, a convicted child abuser who guest-starred on two episodes of Season 5 of Boy Meets World. Per the podcast episode’s official description, the group talks about “the difficult subjects of grooming, childhood sexual abuse, and their effects on victims.”
The podcast comes in light of the approaching premiere of Quiet on Set docuseries, an Investigation Discovery effort to highlight past alleged sexual abuse that occurred on multiple Nickelodeon sets between the 1990s and early 2000s.
Rider Strong and Will Friedle open up about their friendship with Brian Peck
The February 19 episode of Pod Meets World opens with Fishel noting that Friedle and Strong were recently contacted for a statement about Peck. While she did not provide any further details on who contacted the Boy Meets World stars and why, it is likely for the inquiry of the aforementioned ID docuseries which is set to premiere on March 17-18. 
During the podcast on Monday, Friedle reminisced about how Brian Peck entered his life, stating, “I was working a lot after Boy Meets World, and this guy had so ingrained himself into my life, I took him to three shows after Boy Meets World."
He continued, “This was the thing where a person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with…I saw him every day, hung out with him every day, talked to him every day.”
As for Strong, he too added that he hung out with Peck “all the time” outside of work even though Peck was nearly 20 years older.
The hosts further speculated that Peck, an out gay man, may have gotten a pass for hanging around actors 20 years his junior because of his sexuality. They provided that the parents on the sets may have steered away from commenting on the child actors’ friendship with him because they feared it would be taken as homophobia.
“There was probably a part of them that didn't say it because they were afraid it was going to be taken as homophobia, instead of, ‘This is a boundary, gay or not. This is a boundary between adults and kids,'" Fishel said.
Rider Strong and Will Friedle claim Brian Peck manipulated them into believing he was the real victim
The Boys Meet World actors also revealed during the podcast that Brian Peck, who was accused of molesting a child in 2003 and convicted for a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a child under 16, for which he spent 16 months in prison, manipulated them into believing that he was the actual victim in the case. “My instinct initially was, ‘My friend, this can't be. It's gotta be the other person’s fault.’ The story makes complete sense the way that he's saying it,” Friedle said.
Both Strong and Frielde wrote letters in favor of Peck to the judge overlooking the case back then and supported him in the court. Reminiscing an instance from the past, Friedle said they were called out by the mother of the victim. “Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn't change what you did to my kid,” he recalled her saying. “I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing],” Friedle said while adding, “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.”
The episode closes with the group expressing their hope that through this conversation they may assist at least one individual in recognizing if they are being manipulated or groomed by someone with malicious intentions.
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