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The Diplomat star Keri Russell has alleged that girls who looked “sexually active” were dropped from popular TV series The Mickey Mouse Club.

Russell joined MMC at the age of 15 and continued to appear on the show from 1991 to 1994. The children’s TV show featured young boys and girls who could sing and dance, and was responsible for introducing the world to future stars including Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera.

In a new interview on the Dinner’s on Me podcast with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the host asked the now 48-year-old Russell if there had been an age limit for young people’s involvement on the show.

“It’s usually like girls who look like they were sexually active,” she claimed. “Which, probably, I was one of the first. They’re like, ‘She’s out! She is out! That one is gone.’”

However, the Felicity actor said that the same standard did not apply to her male co-stars. Russell stated that she had been sexually active with one of her male MMC stars who stayed on the programme for several years after she was dropped.

“The boys stayed until they were, like, 19,” she shared. “I was like, ‘By the way, I’ve had sex with that person so I know that they’ve had sex.’”

Although the actor did not name the person, she has previously been romantically associated with fellow MMC member Tony Lucca. Lucca left the show at the age of 19, in 1995.

“You know, girls and sexuality, people are like… and by the way, there’s me, I’m like a 12-year-old boy body. There’s nothing really sexy about me but I think that was what was [making me] nervous,” Russell said, adding: “Pregnant Mouseketeers aren’t on the roster.”

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Reflecting on her experience as a child star, she said it was “weird” that she had appeared on the show.

“I think what’s really the creepiest part of kid acting is usually it’s one or two kids with all adults, and so that really accelerates the adultification of everything,” she said.

“For The Mickey Mouse Club, there were 19 of us. The adults were invisible to me. I think that’s what was unique. I wasn’t completely alone with all the adults and I think that was helpful.”

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