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WEEKS before his mysterious disappearance, Drake Bell said that he wanted to “get away” while appearing on a podcast.
The former Drake & Josh star was reported missing on Thursday morning before police announced hours later that he was found safe.
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The Daytona Beach Police Department confirmed to The U.S. Sun that officials were in contact with Bell.
They did not immediately disclose where Bell was located.
The update comes after police said Bell was last seen on Wednesday evening driving a 2022 gray BMW near the area of Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida, police said.
While appearing on the Creativo podcast with YouTuber Roberto Mtz, Bell spoke about his time on the hit Nickelodeon show, his music career, and some of his controversies.
Mtz asked Bell about the time he was in a car accident in 2005, that left him with a fractured neck and broken jaw, requiring him to have his jaw wired shut for two months.
Bell said the injury still affects him to this day and impacted future roles once Drake & Josh ended.
“Were you, like, craving being on stage or being in acting roles?” Mtz asked.
Bell described it as a “peaks and valleys” situation.
“Sometimes you just wanna…sometimes you just wanna go away and get away from everything.
“That’s actually what a lot of my new album is about. It’s about being fed up with Hollywood and what it’s done to myself and people I see.”
TROUBLED STAR
Bell has had his share of troubles since his heydays on Nickelodeon.
In 2020, he was accused of verbal and physical abuse by his ex-girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt.
In a series of TikTok videos, Lingafelt claimed that Bell had been verbally and physically towards her when they lived together more than a decade ago when she was 16 years old, and he was 20.
“It wasn’t until about a year when the verbal abuse started,” she shared with her 72,000 TikTok followers in August 2020.
“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. At the pinnacle of it, he [dragged] me down the stairs of our house… My face hit every step on the way down. I have photos of this.”
Lingafelt added that she didn’t “even want to get into the underage girl thing” and claimed, “I mean, I will, but I’m scared.”
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Bell denied Lingafelt’s claims in a statement to People and said he is “reviewing his legal options.”
He said: “I never abused my ex-girlfriend or did so many of the other things Melissa falsely claimed on her TikTok video.”
Bell added that when their relationship ended “more than a decade ago,” they “unfortunately, both called each other terrible names, as often happens when couples are breaking up. But that is it.
“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.”
Most recently, Bell completed his probation over an attempted child endangerment case from 2021, to which he pled guilty.
Drake was arrested in Ohio in April 2021 for an incident that occurred years prior, in December 2017, where the actor was accused of sexual misconduct and grooming an underage fan.
The victim, who was 19 when she came forward, said the grooming began when she was 12.
She told an Ohio courtroom that her interactions with Bell became “blatantly sexual” after she turned 15.
The victim said Bell exchanged explicit photos online and engaged in sexual conduct with her on several occasions, including at a 2017 concert venue in Cleveland and at a hotel.
Bell kept silent about the ordeal for years, eventually pleading guilty in July 2021, and was sentenced to serve two years probation and 200 hours of community service in California.
BELL BREAKS HIS SILENCE
The former Nickelodeon star broke his silence in an Instagram video explaining why he pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges.
Bell acknowledged his interactions with the minor were “reckless and irresponsible” but claimed he was “unaware” of her age and denied sharing explicit images or having any physical contact with the victim.
“Most of the news you’ve heard recently is entirely false and wrong,” Bell began in the clip shared in September 2021.
“I feel that you deserve, and I owe you, an explanation.
“I know that this has moved very quickly for you, but for me, it’s been a three-year, thorough investigation into every false claim that has been made.
“And, it’s not me telling you that the claims are false, but the state of Ohio has proven the claims to be false.
“If these claims were remotely true, my situation would be very different. I would not be here at home with my wife and my son.”
Bell continued: “I responded to a fan whose age I didn’t know yet when I became aware of their age, all conversation and communication stopped.
“This individual continued to come to shows and pay for meet and greets, all while I was unaware that this was the same person I was communicating with online, and that’s what I plead guilty to.
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