is showing support for his former female co-stars after revealing the majority of them were ‘heavily sexualised.’
The actor, 29, played Ross Gellar’s son Ben in the hit sitcom Friends, before starring alongside his twin brother Dylan Sprouse, in the hit comedy The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Despite the stardom that followed, Cole believed he made it out ‘unscathed’ but said his experience was completely different from his female co-stars.
‘The young women on the channel we were on [Disney] were so heavily sexualised from such an earlier age than my brother and I,’ he said.
‘There’s absolutely no way that we could compare our experiences.’
Speaking to, Cole also said he’s ‘violently defensive’ over people who ‘mock’ the young women who dominated the network at the time.
Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez reigned supreme with their own shows during the early 2000s, and all three women have been vocal about their shaky transitions into adult stardom.
, Miley, 29, was famous for her lead role in Hannah Montana, which she starred in for five years until 2011.
During the height of the #MeToo movement in 2018, Miley admitted that she often felt ‘controlled’ by men in her younger years.
‘I think men have an idea they know what a female pop star should sound like or look like,’ she said during an interview with KissFM.
‘When I was working on Disney there was a lot of men in the room that would decide what hair would go with what.’
While Selena, 29, she revealed that she did ‘things’ that were out of her comfort zone during her time on Disney Channel.
‘There was pressure to seem more adult on my album, Revival. [I felt] the need to show skin… I really don’t think I was [that] person,’ she told Allure magazine.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Disney for comment.
