During a recent "20/20" interview with Katie Couric on Friday, "7th Heaven" actor Stephen Collins revealed that he was molested as a child prior to molesting a number of underage girls later on in his life, the New York Daily News reports.

Collins did not specifically identify who molested him as a child, however the 67-year-old actor did reveal that the person who allegedly molested him was a woman who was integral part of his life as a young boy and later took advantage of him "between the ages of 10 and 15."

"That distorted my perception in such a way that some part of me felt -- I never felt like I was molested. That word never crossed my mind as a 10 to 15-year-old boy," Collins added. "It was a very intense experience. I think somewhere in my brain I got the equation that, 'Well, this isn't so terrible. This person who I trust is doing it."

Despite admitting that his molestation "distorted" his "perception" on appropriate behavior between adult and child, Collins also insisted that his experience as a child was no excuse for his actions later on in his life, the New York Daily News reports.

Collins then concluded his interview with an apology to his "7th Heaven" fans.

"I'm very sorry that anything that I did disappoints you that way," he said.

"But I would hope that you could know and see '7th Heaven' as a time that is completely carved away from all these incidents."

Check out more of Collins' interview on "20/20" below.


Collins' candid "20/20" interview follows TMZ's leaked audio recording of Collins confessing to molesting three underage girls.

In the disturbing audio recording -- which was published on TMZ back in October -- Collins confesses to molesting an 11-year-old New York relative of his first wife, Marjorie Weinman. Collins admits to molesting the girl "a couple of times" over the course of two years when she turned "12 and 13 years old."

Later in the recording, Collins confesses to molesting an LA girl -- who he later apologized to -- that lived in his neighborhood and another New York girl who was between the age of 12 and 13 at the time.

"There was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis," Collins says in the recording. When asked if it aroused him, he replies, "No, I mean, no. Partial, maybe I think."

Since the release of the TMZ recording, Collins has been fired from his upcoming film, "Ted 2," and also resigned from his position on the Screen Actors Guild national board.

UPTV also announced its decision to stop showing re-runs of "7th Heaven" on its network.

Related