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'As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth.'

Former "7th Heaven" star Stephen Collins has released a statement that both admits to and details inappropriate sexual acts with three female minors.

Two months after TMZ released a tape containing a secretly recorded confession from Collins, the actor told People on Wednesday (December 17) that he molested three victims from 1973 to 1994. In the 20 years since, Collins says that he has not "had an impulse to act out in any such way."

Pledge to take a stand against sexual assault over at It’s On Us.

"Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret," Collins says in the statement. "I have been working to atone for it ever since. I've decided to address these issues publicly because two months ago, various news organizations published a recording made by my then-wife, Faye Grant, during a confidential marriage therapy session in January, 2012. This session was recorded without the therapist's or my knowledge or consent.

"On the recording, I described events that took place 20, 32, and 40 years ago. 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."

To learn about rape culture and what you can do to combat it, head over to Look Different.

Collins will have further opportunity to discuss this truth with Katie Couric, via an interview that will stream on Yahoo! and air Friday night on "20/20." As of press time his victims will not have the chance to speak in this interview, though Collins adds that he has apologized to one of them.

"I did have an opportunity to [apologize] with one of the women, 15 years later," Collins says. "I apologized and she was extraordinarily gracious. But after I learned in the course of my treatment that my being direct about such matters could actually make things worse for them by opening old wounds, I have not approached the other two women, one of whom is now in her 50s and the other in her 30s."

Because it's not publicly known when or where Collins committed the abuse, we don't know whether he can or will be prosecuted. Sexual abuse laws vary by state and exact crime. For more information, visit RAINN.org.