By Ann Oldenberg/Gannett News Service
We all know him as the solid, sweet minister dad on “7th Heaven.” But that, of course, was just a TV role for Stephen Collins.
Now fans are seeing him in a new light as TMZ has obtained a sad and shocking audio tape featuring Collins, 67, discussing three instances of child molestation.
It’s part of a nasty divorce Collins has been going through with actress Faye Grant. When he filed papers in 2012 after 27 years of marriage, she said she was “devastated.”
On the tape, Collins is heard talking to Grant and to a therapist about exposing himself to underage girls and admitting, “There was one moment of touching.”. One was 11 when he started, and Collins says it continued when she was “12 and 13.”
Collins recently appeared on the NBC series “Revolution,” and his film credits include “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “The First Wives Club.”