Drake Bell and Josh Peck are opening up about their recovery journeys.

On the March 27 episode of Peck’s Good Guys podcast, which he hosts with Ben Soffer, the former Drake & Josh costars, both 38, talked openly about their substance abuse struggles and the recovery that followed.

The podcast marked the first time the pair have reunited since the 2024 Quiet on Set documentary premiered, in which Bell talked about being sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck (no relation to Josh) when he was 15. The aftermath ultimately led Bell to use drugs and alcohol.

In 2004, Brian Peck pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old in connection with the case. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender. After serving his sentence, he was released from prison in 2005.

On the podcast, the second half of a two-part conversation between the actors, Peck remarked that Bell was “the best I had ever seen him,” and said, “I’m just extremely excited about what you have next and all the great things you’re doing. And I think there was, like, and you talked about it in the doc. I would love to know if there was a moment.”

He then asked, “Did you go somewhere to work on some of this?”

Bell said that he went to rehab in Nashville in 2023. When Peck asked what drove him to that moment, Bell responded, “I think it was just, like, exhaustion and just being at nowhere else to turn like, just feeling like a rat in a cage. Like, just feeling like I couldn’t do it anymore.” The actor had been facing legal issues of his own at the time, too.

When Peck pointed out that Bell was going through this process publicly, Bell recalled that he knew he needed to survive, but didn’t know how to do it himself.

“Oh, everything was public, man. I mean, it’s just crazy. It got hard. I just got to a point where I was like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to do this. Like, this is just something I don’t know how to do. I know how to survive,” he said. “I’ve been doing that my whole life. I feel like I’ve needed to just survive.”

Bell admitted that he didn’t know how he would be a father and work in acting again. When he got to rehab, he was adamant that no one there know what he was going through.

“When I got there, I went, it was like this battle where I was kicking and screaming,” he admitted.

Bell said that once he got to the facility and filled out the intake forms, he could take his first deep breath in a long time, and it slowly became a reformative experience. Bell also opened up about his experience with the 12-step program and how he has been able to get motivation from watching Peck.

“Watching you throughout the years too has been a big inspiration. ‘Cause it’s like, you know, being in this industry and being around and also just being in that world of the 12 steps and all of that,” Bell shared. “Watching you has been inspiring because it’s like, you know, you really stick to your s—.”

Bell went on to admit that it has been a struggle, and recovery is an everyday choice. “It’s a day-by-day thing, you know, you’re not gonna fall and you’re not gonna slide back, but … it’s not f—— easy.”

Peck responded with, “And giving you credit for facing that stuff and going to rehab.”

In the first part of the podcast, which aired last week, Peck revealed his personal struggles during and after Drake & Josh, including losing 100 pounds and getting sober at 21.

Speaking to Tana Mongeau in 2023, Peck opened up about his drug and alcohol use.

“I just spent four years being a total cliché,” he said of turning to drugs and alcohol as a teen. “I think the most insidious or corrosive moment of my life was the first time I tried drugs and I was 17. I’m lying in bed that night and I realized what a great time I’d had that night. I felt charming, handsome, and I was having great conversations and talking to girls.”

He continued, “I remember thinking, ‘Why would anyone ever want to feel any other way but this?’ And I took that deep breath I’d been seeking my whole life. Suddenly, I felt free.”

In 2008, he got sober.

Speaking to Bell on Good Guys, Peck said he still struggles to reconcile the happiness the show brought to fans with his own feelings about that time in his life.

“You know that the moments that were great and we were incredibly lucky to get to do this thing that we loved. But there’s also the truth of everything you went through and everything that was … just an experience for a kid that was unacceptable in so many ways and you go wrestle with this idea .. I remember people would ask me about the show or, or something, and I would say, ‘Well, I lost 100 pounds and had to get sober at 21. Did I seem happy?’ Like, it’s sort of, you know, it’s a bit of a sign.”

Drake & Josh ran for four seasons, from 2004 to 2007.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.