Drake Bell claimed that he found out that his wife, Janet Von Schmeling, had filed for divorce by reading about it online.
The 36-year-old singer took to Twitter on Friday to address the reports surrounding his split, after four years of marriage. “I found out my wife filed for divorce from TMZ,” he tweeted.
Bell also added “check out my new song,” as his post included a link to the music video of his tune, “Going Away”.
It appears that the song may be written about Von Schmeling, as he sang about how he was moving his wife and son out to an island, where they could “start a new life”. He appeared to address his frustrations with the paparazzi in Hollywood, since he sang that he was “done with this f***ing scene” and “done with” this city.
According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Von Schmeling filed a dissolution of marriage petition in the Los Angeles County’s Superior Court on Thursday.
In the documents, Von Schmeling said that she and the Drake & Josh star had been separated since September 2022. She cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split.
Per TMZ, the legal documents noted that she was seeking primary and physical custody of her and Bell’s one-year-old son, Wyatt. The actor is also seeking rights to visit his child.
The news of Bell’s divorce comes one week after the Florida Police briefly reported that he was missing. On 13 April, the Daytona Beach Police Department posted an alert on their Facebook, in which they said the Nickelodeon star was “considered missing and endangered”.
Hours after the post was shared, the police confirmed they were in contact with Bell and that he was safe. That evening, Bell poked fun at the reports about him being missing, as he tweeted: “You leave your phone in the car and don’t answer for the night and this?,” alongside a crying-laughing face emoji.
Bell recently completed a two-year probation sentence, after he pled guilty to child endangerment in June 2021. Allegations against Bell were made by a then-19-year-old woman, who first reported the actor to police in 2018 and accused him of grooming her since she was 12.
During the trial, via Zoom, she called the actor “the epitome of evil”, claiming their conversations became “blatantly sexual” when she turned 15.
“Jared Drake Bell is a paedophile and that is his legacy,” she concluded her statement.
Bell’s lawyers disputed claims of pictures being exchanged and sexual abuse, claiming that there was no evidence. When delivering Bell’s sentence, Ohio judge Timothy McCormick said that his “celebrity status let [him] nurture this relationship” with someone who was a child.
After accepting the plea and saying that his “conduct was wrong”, Bell apologised to the woman. “I’m sorry that the victim was harmed in any way, but that was obviously not my intention,” he said. “I have taken this matter very, very seriously. And again, I just want to apologise to her and anyone else who may have been affected by my actions.”
