Disgraced ‘7th Heaven’ Dad Stephen Collins Spotted in Iowa Amid Retreat From Public Eye

Disgraced 7th Heaven actor Stephen Collins has taken a step out of the spotlight and is living a small town life after he admitted to “exposing himself and touching minors.” Collins, who starred as Rev. Eric Camden on the popular series, became swept up in a sexual misconduct scandal in 2014 and quietly left Los Angeles in favor of the small town of Fairfield, Iowa, where he now lives a quiet life with his wife Jenny Nagel, a super fan who is nearly half his age at just 32.

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According to the Daily Mail, Collins and Nagel married in July and after the 32-year-old German native was first spotted wearing an engagement ring in April. It is unclear how the couple met, though Nagel had been drawn to Collins through his fame. In 2010, before Collins’ was shrouded in scandal, she had shared a video on social media of Collins’ 7th Heaven character, writing a message expressing her love of him and the series.

“‘Have been watching this show since 1999… and those 2 r the best!! I wanna have this kind of relationship (when I grow up),” she wrote.

Nagel moved to Fairfield in January 2018 to study at the Maharishi University Of Management. She now lives with Collins in their home that sits on 1.77 acres and overlooks the scenic Pleasant Lake. Purchased for $557,000 in August 2017, it boasts three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an office, and meditation room, something that is put to good use considering the couple’s love of meditation.

According to the outlet, both Collins and Nagel take part in twice-daily transcendental meditation sessions in nearby Maharishi Vedic City. The gatherings are reportedly members-only and attended by hundreds. The couple have frequently been spotted attending the services, with Collins also reportedly seen going out for breakfast with friends and taking out the trash.

The actor’s new quiet life comes after the 72-year-old admitted in 2014 that he did “something terribly wrong” when he inappropriately touched one girl and exposed himself to two others between 1973 and 1994. The allegations first came to light after his estranged wife Faye Grant secretly recorded their private marriage therapy sessions, during which he confessed to exposing himself to several children.

Collins publicly admitted to the misconduct in an apology statement in 2014, in which he stated that he had “been in extensive therapy for over twenty years” and credited daily transcendental meditation for not “[engaging] in any such behavior for over twenty years.”