Cole Sprouse says becoming a child star 'saved his life'

Cole Sprouse has opened up about the 'life-saving' impact of becoming a child star.

The actor shot to fame playing Cody Martin on Disney's The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody, alongside his twin brother Dylan.

And while becoming famous as a child can present people with a whole host of issues, Cole said the breakthrough had the opposite impact for the siblings.

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 30-year-old said: "Funny enough, I get asked about Disney a lot because I think a lot of people want to sort of poke the bear and see, you know, how atrocious the channel was.

"By the time my brother and I got to the Disney Channel, we were good. It was a huge boon to us.

"It was in many ways, a life-saving show. It provided us with an amount of stability and consistency, and routine, that really was needed for my brother and I at the time."

The actor - who now plays Jughead Jones in Riverdale - explained that his mum had mental health issues and his dad was eventually awarded custody.

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The Zack and Cody gig subsequently felt like 'the golden ticket from Willy Wonka' and 'provided us with an amount of stability and consistency and routine that really was needed for my brother and I at the time'.

He explained: "I think there's two types of kids within the child acting business.

"There's, like the thespian children who choose to do it, and then there's the working class kids that, in our case at least… I mean it started, really, as a means to put bread on the table."

And while starring in the show provided the family with some much needed cash and structure, Cole concluded that the pay-off might not have been worth it if he and his brother were girls.

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"I think in very many ways, my brother and I were lucky mainly because we were young boys," he explained.

"Like, the fascination when we were younger, at least on the Disney Channel, was like, of Miley and Selena and a lot of these girls, because they were heavily sexualised, which is another huge f**king issue.

"But the fascination which was young womanhood… My brother and I in very many ways went through all of the same trappings, except the lens wasn't on us as tightly, which I'm very, very grateful for."