Earlier than among the forged members of seventh Heaven look again on filming the present in a rewatch podcast, they took a second to deal with the elephant within the room.
Previous to beginning their episode for his or her Catching Up With The Camdens podcast, Beverley Mitchell, David Gallagher and Mackenzie Rosman, recognized for his or her roles of Lucy, Simon and Ruthie, respectively on the sequence talked in regards to the “inappropriate sexual conduct” their former TV dad, Stephen Collins, beforehand confessed to.
“We wish you to know that we see all your feedback and we all know how excited you all are for the rewatch in order that’s precisely what we’re going to do, however earlier than we get into that we do suppose it’s vital that we are saying one thing about Stephen Collins,” Mitchell stated.
Gallagher added, “All types of abuse, sexual abuse of any type, it’s inexcusable. And victims of abuse must be proven compassion, and they need to be given help.”
“As we rewatch these episodes, it could be unattainable to not speak about Stephen as a result of he was such an enormous a part of the present and our lives, however we wish to be clear that we didn’t have any inappropriate experiences with Stephen,” Rosman continued.
“We don’t excuse or condone his habits. Our hope for this podcast is to reconnect with you, our followers, to relive some ’90s nostalgia and to share our fondest recollections of seventh Heaven,” she stated.
Gallagher ended with, “We all know that is tough, and we perceive that it may be triggering, however we wish to say that we love you guys, and we’re so grateful for all of the love and help that you simply, our group, have proven to us. So, hopefully you guys will follow us as we proceed on this journey.”
In addition they confirmed that Collins wouldn’t be showing on the rewatch podcast.
In 2014, Collins, who portrayed Reverand Eric Camden on the household drama, admitted to “inappropriate sexual conduct with three feminine minors” from 1997 to 1994. In consequence, Collins was dropped from his company and misplaced appearing roles on Ted 2 and Scandal. On the time, reruns of seventh Heaven have been additionally pulled from two networks. He additionally resigned from his spot on the SAG-AFTRA board. On the time, Collins, whom authorities reportedly determined to not prosecute following his confession, stated he hasn’t engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with minors since.
The reveal got here on account of audio of Collins from a wedding remedy session in 2012, and was posted on-line by TMZ. Collins claims the recording was made with out his or the therapist’s information or consent.
“The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far past what really occurred. As tough as that is, I would like folks to know the reality,” he informed Folks on the time.
“Forty years in the past, I did one thing terribly fallacious that I deeply remorse. I’ve been working to atone for it ever since,” Collins additionally stated within the assertion.