STEPHEN Collins, the “7th Heaven” TV dad accused of child molestation, orchestrated a multi-million dollar cover-up to stop the public from learning about his sex scandal, The National ENQUIRER can exclusively reveal.
The 67-year-old actor – famed for playing the mild-mannered Rev. Eric Camden on the popular family series – engineered a conspiracy of silence when molestation allegations first surfaced against him two years ago.
Now, Collins is finally the subject of a criminal investigation by the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Division – and that probe became public Oct. 7.
Collins allegedly told his estranged wife Faye Grant that he molested three underage girls. The shocking admissions were reportedly made during a 2012 therapy session, which Grant allegedly recorded.
When The ENQUIRER became aware of an email sent by Grant to a close friend exposing claims of Collins’ alleged child molestation, the actor unleashed a high-powered Los Angeles law firm to quash the story.
Under orders from Collins, in a letter dated Aug. 25, 2012, a partner in the law firm Kinsella, Weitzman, Iser, Kump & Aldisert claimed it was an “insidious allegation” that Collins had sexually abused a child.
Collins’ pit-bull lawyer grimly warned that publication “would expose The ENQUIRER … to potentially millions of dollars of general, special, and punitive damages.”
The ENQUIRER decided not to publish at that time. But now, we can reveal shocking details from Grant’s email to a pal, with the victim’s name redacted for her protection.
Grant wrote: “Stephen had already molested —-. He successfully convinced —- that she made the sexual molestation up. Stephen made her think she was crazy, and lied to —- throughout her life when she confronted him about her abuse. Stephen lied to —- and me in family therapy when she was in several rehabs, insisting that she was making it up.”
Grant further wrote: “This year, Stephen confessed to having led a secret life for the 27 years we have been together. I live every day with agonizing guilt that I did not protect —-.”
When The ENQUIRER previously contacted Grant about her email claims, she did not deny she’d made them.
A source had told The ENQUIRER that Collins “blindsided Grant with a divorce after nearly three decades of marriage and, then, Faye was so angry she sent the email to close friends accusing him of child sexual abuse.But there was no indication that Faye ever alerted authorities to this during their marriage.”
In the legal letter to The ENQUIRER, Collins’ lawyer said Grant “resorted to these tactics in an effort to leverage Mr. Collins into entering a highly one-sided marital property settlement in the divorce.”
Collins had one daughter with Grant – Kate, now 24 – who is not the subject of any allegations. Instead, he reportedly admitted to exposing himself “a couple of times” to a relative of first wife, Marjorie Weinman, adding: “She was 11, then, like, 12 and 13.”
Collins later allegedly confessed, “I put her hand on my penis.” The actor also allegedly admitted exposing himself to two more girls, including “the niece of a woman who lived across the way.”
While Collins isn’t yet charged with a crime, he’s already lost a part in “Ted 2” and a guest gig on “Scandal.”
“If the allegations are true, it makes him out to be a monster,” said a source. “It’s even more shocking because he played a wholesome husband, father and a preacher on TV.”
