WATCH ABOVE: In an interview with Katie Couric, 7th Heaven star Stephen Collins insists he is not a pedophile
TORONTO — Actor Stephen Collins insisted he is not a pedophile, even though he admitted to exposing himself to two minor females and inappropriately touching a third.
“I’m absolutely not attracted, physically or sexually attracted, to children. I’m just not,” he said in an interview with Katie Couric broadcast Friday night.
Earlier this week, Collins told People about past incidents.
“Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret,” he said. “I have been working to atone for it ever since.”
Collins, 67, had maintained his silence since recordings secretly made during therapy sessions in 2012 with his estranged wife Faye Grant were posted online in October.
In the recording, obtained by TMZ, a voice identified as that of Collins admitted molesting an 11-year-old relative of his first wife Marjorie Weinman. “There was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis,” he said.
On tape, Collins also admitted to exposing himself to the girl on more than one occasion.
In his statement, posted Wednesday, Collins said the recording was made “without the therapist’s or my knowledge or consent.”
Collins said the encounters happened in 1973, 1982 and 1994.
Best known for playing Rev. Eric Camden on 7th Heaven, the actor added: “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.”
Collins said he apologized to one of the women “and she was extraordinarily gracious” but he has not approached the other two women — one now in her 50s and one in her 30s.
He told Couric: “I’m a human being with flaws. I have dealt with them very, very strongly and commitedly in my private life.”
Collins has not been charged with a crime.
– with files by The Associated Press
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