Back in the 2000s, those who tuned into the showDrake and Joshwere led to believe that co-stars Josh Peck and Drake Bell were the best of friends on set given the time they spent together both on the show and previously onThe Amanda Showbefore that. Fans are seeing almost two decades later that maybe that wasn’t the case.
In an interview with Dave Portnoy, Peck was asked about his current relationship with Bell, to which Peck nonchalantly said was “fine.” To elaborate, Peck used his well-publicized quasi-feud with Bell over the latter not being invited to the former’s wedding. “We havelike this small wedding, and the dirty little secret I guess was that I knew Drake and I didn’t stay in touch for the ten years since we had made the show… we made this thing that people really love, but… we weren’t that close, so I didn’t invite him to my wedding because I hadn’t talked to him in many, many years.”
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Bell however tells a different story. In his first podcast with his wife, Bell refuted Peck’s claims that they weren’t friends post-Drake and Joshby telling his side of the story of what went down during Peck’s wedding. “I was texting him congratulations for getting engaged to Paige, we had spent so much time with them at Michael’s house… I was bummed,” Bell said. He later elaborated that while it wasn’t always easygoing between him and Peck, they still shared a special bond. “We’ve had our ups and downs. We’ve had times when we’ve been friends. We’ve had times when we wanted to kill each other… We were like brothers. I’m closer to Josh than I am to my own brothers.”
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding their relationship ever since Bell made a very public deal about not being invited to Peck’s wedding back in 2017. It was a shock at the time since people who gave that event the attention that it received were the same kids who grew up watchingNickelodeon’sDrake and Josh, but that instance, along with what’s happened since then, goes to show that celebrities have their public and private personas. Just because they may create this image does not mean it’s not a mirage.
Considering all the facts, it’s hard not to side with Bell here. Peck stressed that the two of them have hardly been in touch at all since the end ofDrake and Josh. However, since the show ended, the two of them havemade YouTube videos together, they’ve been guest stars on each other’s shows, and they’ve even come to the filming of each other’s shows on occasion. If you scroll through some of their social media accounts, you’ll see they made an effort to keep in touch through the years. All facts seem to indicate there was a strong sense of camaraderie there for a time. Maybe it wasn’t as strong once their show ended, but it didn’t seem like they cut all ties from each other at all.
At the same time, can you blame Peck for trying to distance his name from Bell? Bell’s gotten himself into some hot water in recent months, having recently been convicted of attempted child endangerment and having been publicly accused of verbal and physical abuse by one of his exes. There’s enough smoke there to believe that he’s kind of a creep. So, Peck may justifiably be trying to save face by creating the narrative that he and Bell were never close friends to begin with so his career doesn’t have such a skid mark. Even if that’s hard to believe given the evidence would seemingly contradict Peck’s statements, it’s not hard to see why Peck would say as much.
Drake and Joshcan be streamed on Hulu.
