Former 7th Heaven patriarch Stephen Collins has confessed and apologized for sexually assaulting three different underage girls on five separate occasions.
In a lengthy statement, Collins said he hasn’t acted inappropriately with anyone since 1994. He also said he’s been in therapy for it for the past 20 years and never did it during his 11-year run on the show that made him famous.
Collins told People in a 1,000-word written statement that his behavior is “inexcusable” and “terribly wrong.”
“Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret. I have been working to atone for it ever since. I've decided to address these issues publicly because two months ago, various news organizations published a recording made by my then-wife, Faye Grant, during a confidential marriage therapy session in January, 2012. This session was recorded without the therapist's or my knowledge or consent,” he wrote.
Since those recordings became pubic, Collins has been dropped by his talent agency and from Scandal and Ted 2.
“The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far beyond what actually occurred. As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth,” he continued.
He did meet with one victim, but for fear of “opening old wounds” he has not contacted the other two.
Collins even went into detail about what he did, writing of one of the victims that he “moved her hand in such a way that caused her to touch me inappropriately,'' calling it a “completely impulsive act, and it's haunted me ever since to think of what I put her through."
“I admit to, apologize for, and take responsibility for what I did,” he also wrote, saying he has not “had an impulse to act out in any such way" in two decades.
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