April Value determined to observe some tv after strolling her canine when she felt her previous got here again to hang-out her.
It was 2014, and a information program had reported there was audio of former “7th Heaven” star Stephen Collins purportedly confessing to participating in sexual misconduct with underage women, which was leaked to TMZ. The recording was made throughout a 2012 counseling session and given to police by the actor’s estranged spouse.
“I remember just standing there and watching it play out and listening to that confession,” Value instructed Fox Information Digital. “I know that even though they bleeped out the name, I knew he was saying my name. I knew he was describing me. That was an absolute gut punch. Then the worst part for me, at that point, was finding out that I wasn’t the only little girl.”
The rise and fall of actor Stephen Collins is being explored within the Investigation Discovery (ID) collection “Hollywood Demons.” (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Pictures)
The scandal that endlessly broken the veteran actor’s profession is being revisited in Investigation Discovery’s new collection, “Hollywood Demons” airing on Monday. The present, hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky, goals to discover the “scandals of life in the spotlight.”
Investigation Discovery’s “Hollywood Demons” is hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky. (JC Olivera/Getty Pictures)
The primary episode, which focuses on Collins, options an interview with Value, who claimed Collins uncovered himself to her 3 times when she was 13.
A younger April Value is seen right here in Stephen Collins through the summer season of 1983 whereas she was visiting her aunt in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of April Value)
Fox Information Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Collins, now 77, former solid members of “7th Heaven,” in addition to Collins’ ex-wife, Faye Grant, for remark. Different “7th Heaven” solid members, together with Jeremy London, spoke out within the episode about how they felt after they first discovered concerning the accusations.
Based on the episode, producers reached out to greater than 100 associates of Collins. Almost everybody declined to take part or didn’t reply.
The solid of “7th Heaven” have fun 150 episodes of the hit WB collection, circa 2003. (Kevin Winter/Getty Pictures)
“I’m a mother now,” Value defined to Fox Information Digital on why she’s talking out. “I could push it to the side and not think about it. But as a mother, I would hope that my child would be able to come forward to me if anything happened to him that made him feel uncomfortable, victimized or endangered in any way.”
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April Value is the one accuser talking out in “Hollywood Demons.” (ID)
“I’m hoping that my voice will lend strength to other people, maybe in the same instances where they don’t feel as comfortable speaking about something deeply uncomfortable or unsettling in their life,” she added.
In 1983, the Oklahoma native, then 13, was visiting her aunt, a producer residing in Los Angeles, through the summer season.
April Value mentioned she was a fan of Stephen Collins from “Tales of the Gold Monkey” when she met the actor whereas on summer season break. (ABC Photograph Archives/Disney Normal Leisure Content material through Getty Pictures)
“My aunt Cindy was a role model,” mentioned Value. “She was only a year older than my mother… And being able to come to Hollywood was deeply exciting and glamorous to me. I would go to the production company with her. I remember going out on the set with her.”
Stephen Collins is seen right here filming “Tales of the Gold Monkey” with Leo the canine, circa 1982. (ABC Photograph Archives/Disney Normal Leisure Content material through Getty Pictures)
Value discovered that her aunt’s next-door neighbor was Collins, star of 1982’s “Tales of the Gold Monkey,” an Indiana Jones-inspired drama.
“I was really excited because I was a big fan of ‘Tales of the Gold Monkey,’” mentioned Value. “He was somebody I was aware of before I ever went out there. When my aunt first told me he was her neighbor, I was excited to meet him. He was very gracious, very kind, very engaging… A lot of times when you speak to actors, they’re not really interested in having a conversation. But Stephen was very engaging.”
Value labored up the braveness to ask the star for his autograph. He gave her a personally signed headshot.
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April Value mentioned that is the signed photograph Stephen Collins gave her when she was 13. (Courtesy of April Value)
“I was so excited to receive it,” mentioned Value. “I had a few headshots other actors gave me at the time, but this one was personally written for me.”
Value claimed that issues rapidly took a flip. Within the episode, Value alleged that she was within the kitchen cooking breakfast when she appeared up and noticed Collins strolling via the courtyard, proper in entrance of her aunt’s huge bay window, bare. Value mentioned she was too embarrassed to inform her aunt, who was at work, what she noticed.
Just a few days later, Value mentioned she wanted assist establishing her Atari recreation console. Her aunt was away at work. However Collins was residence.
Garth Ancier, who was the co-chairman of The WB Community, instructed “Hollywood Demons” that he by no means witnessed questionable conduct from Stephen Collins whereas on the set of “7th Heaven.” (ID)
“Stephen was always very friendly and engaging,” mentioned Value. “There was never a time when he wasn’t anything but that, so he was very willing and almost eager to be able to help me out. I laugh at how naïve I was about that. I beat myself up even at an older age to look back on that. But at the time, it was, ‘Can you please help me?’ It was something I would’ve asked my dad to do. And he was the age of my father.”
Value mentioned Collins uncovered himself to her there. Value mentioned she was shocked and uncomfortable however didn’t wish to offend Collins as a result of he was so sort to her and keen to assist.
Then on the finish of that summer season, Value mentioned Collins requested her if she wished to cease by his residence the place she may take a look at memorabilia from “Tales of the Gold Monkey.” As soon as inside, she mentioned Collins appeared utterly bare. Nervous, Value mentioned she noticed via a window that her aunt had returned residence. She used it as an excuse to depart.
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Tom Greene, producer of “Tales of the Gold Monkey,” detailed what it was like working with Stephen Collins within the early years. (ID)
“I justified it,” Value mirrored. “… I was mentally just making every excuse in the world. This is his place, this is where he lives. Maybe this is just something he does. This is something I have to get used to. I just honestly didn’t know how to even comprehend what had happened. I was also still making excuses because he was a good-looking movie star and I didn’t want to offend him.”
“I spent a lot of years processing it,” she mentioned. “It was something that I would think about.”
Value mentioned her aunt by no means suspected something flawed had occurred.
Value crossed paths with Collins in her 20s on a set. On the time, she was filling in for somebody to do craft service on a shoot. Realizing that Collins was a part of filming that day, she “felt trapped.”
“I’m a dad, first and foremost, above everything else,” mentioned Jeremy London within the collection. “And so my first thoughts always go to the children.” (ID)
The actor acknowledged her, she mentioned.
“During a break, he came up to me, looked me in the eye, and said it was something that he had thought about deeply,” Value claimed. “He was deeply embarrassed, and he was deeply sorry and that he knew what he had done was completely wrong and asked for my forgiveness.”
April Value instructed Fox Information Digital that when she crossed paths with Stephen Collins in her 20s, she discovered that he was concerned with charity work. She believed he had turned his life round. (David Livingston/Getty Pictures)
“Honestly, it gave me a pretty good sense of relief,” she mentioned. “At the time, it gave me permission to let it go. He recognizes that what he did was wrong, and he’s admitting responsibility for it. He’s expressing remorse for it… I thought he had been doing the work.”
Stephen Collins and Faye Grant divorced in 2015. Grant denied ever leaking the audio recordings to TMZ. (Stephen Shugerman/Getty Pictures)
Grant has mentioned she gave police the audio of a 2012 {couples} counseling session wherein Collins admitted to molesting younger women, doing so solely after he refused to hunt applicable remedy. However Grant denied giving the recording to TMZ.
The recording led to re-runs of “7th Heaven” disappearing from cable TV and Collins swiftly shedding performing roles. Three regulation enforcement businesses confirmed to The Related Press on the time that there have been investigations into the allegations.
In 2014, Stephen Collins instructed Katie Couric in a televised interview, “I’m a human being with flaws. I have dealt with them very, very strongly and committedly in my private life.” (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Pictures)
In 2014, Collins issued a prolonged assertion to Folks journal admitting he had inappropriate sexual misconduct with three feminine minors from 1973 to 1994. That yr, he additionally gave a televised interview to Katie Couric wherein he denied being a pedophile. As an alternative, he described himself as somebody affected by “exhibitionist urges,” “big boundary issues” and “poor impulse control.”
“Stephen Collins would be a dead man if that was my child,” mentioned Jeremy London within the episode. (ID)
He characterised his actions as “terrible, and I regret them deeply,” including, “I’m absolutely not attracted, physically or sexually attracted, to children. I’m just not.”
Collins additionally famous he’s been in remedy and non secular counseling for 20 years, “and always will be.”
Value is the one accuser who has spoken out. Collins has since tried to maintain a low profile. He instructed Couric that he hasn’t had any “urges” since 1994 and if anybody else got here ahead claiming to be victims of him,”it would not be truthful.”
RAQUEL WELCH ONCE THREATENED FATHER WITH FIRE POKER DURING EXPLOSIVE ARGUMENT: DOC
“7th Heaven” aired from 1996 to 2007. (Frank Trapper/Corbis through Getty Pictures)
Value mentioned Collins’ sit-down made her really feel “fury, like a volcano,” prompting her to talk out.
“It was something I could have very easily let go,” she instructed Fox Information Digital. “I could have sat there and never said another word about it. And then he gave that interview to Katie Couric and downplayed it… It was infuriating… All I could do was see red.”
Value mentioned that when the audio recordings surfaced, she reached out to the LAPD and gave an announcement. It was her understanding that the statute of limitations had handed. The Los Angeles Occasions additionally reported that Collins was by no means prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. Fox Information Digital reached out to the Los Angeles District Legal professional’s Workplace for remark.
Kyle Searles, an actor on “7th Heaven,” was shocked to listen to Stephen Collins’ audio recordings for the primary time. (ID)
In 2024, solid members of “7th Heaven” condemned their TV dad within the podcast “Catching Up with the Camdens.”
In the present day, Value admitted she felt “sick to my stomach” revisiting her ordeal. Nonetheless, she doesn’t remorse sharing her story.
Stephen Collins has saved a low profile through the years. (ID)
“I hope people understand that it’s OK to have a voice,” she mentioned. “The idea of being a victim makes me nuts. I’ve never liked that feeling. I think being able to talk about trauma is empowering. And if any one person can see it and take any strength from somebody else talking about it, then that’s all I need.”
“Hollywood Demons” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Investigation Discovery. The Related Press contributed to this report.
