“I am a good man trying to be a better man,” said actor Stephen Collins during an interview with Katie Couric. The actor admitted to exposing himself to three women. His explanation for his actions is referred to as poor impulse control and the arrogance that a 25-year-old possesses. But he stands firm on by saying that he is not attracted to underage girls and claims he doesn’t fit the clinical or physical definition of a pedophile.
“We are all made of dark parts and light parts,” said Collins. The actor admits and takes full responsibility for his actions and says that he is and has been in intense therapy for 20 years. Collins said he has allowed his faith to help him find redemption within himself and will remain in therapy forever because he knows that his wrongful acts have affected the lives of three women.
The alleged accusations of Collins’ were revealed by the media when audio of Collins and his wife during therapy were leaked. During the therapy session Collins admitted to exposing himself to children in the past. In the interview with Couric, Collins says that his soon-to-be ex-wife Faye Grant brought him into a stairwell, after therapy, and explained that she was wearing a wire and taped the whole confession during their therapy session.
According to Collins, Grant requested that he sign the settlement or she would turn the tapes over to the media. Grant has denied Collins’ claims and has issued a statement saying, "I woke up today to learn that an extremely private recording I handed over to the authorities in 2012 per their request in connection with a criminal investigation was recently disseminated to the press. I had no involvement whatsoever with the release of the tape to the media."
During the interview with Couric, Collins admitted that he was sexually abused by an older woman from the ages of 10 to 15. Collins felt that because of the situation he experienced, a part of his brain materialized his own actions as not being so terrible.
Until the interview with Couric, Collins has maintained a low profile but feels like he needed to come forth now because, “the truth as painful as it is, is less painful than some of the rumors that were flying around.” Collins attests to thinking of those women everyday and believes that with all of his heart he feels genuinely remorseful for what he has done.
After the release of the confessional therapy tapings, Collins was fired from his reoccurring role on Scandal and was dropped from the production of the film Ted 2. Despite the statue of limitations on the child molestation acts, there remains an open investigation of the cases in New York City.