Mark Diamond, father of the late Saved by the Bell star Dustin Diamond, has finally addressed his son’s claims that he stole his earnings from the hit NBC show.

The new installment of Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons docu-series, After the Bell, pulls back the curtain on one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, revealing the harsh realities the stars faced when the cameras weren’t rolling. For some of the stars, like Dustin, the show marked their very first acting role, putting them in a vulnerable position when it came to negotiating.

Saved by the Bell marked one of Dustin’s first major roles. The actor, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 44 from lung cancer, starred as Samuel “Screech” Powers.

Though Dustin publicly accused his parents of squandering what he earned from the show, Mark claimed in the documentary, which premiered Monday May 4 on ID and HBO Max, that the money was spent on Dustin’s career.

“Dustin’s agent would take out her 10-percent commission,” Mark explains in the doc. “Anything left over, we had to cover certain things, like taxes, gasoline, obviously, headshots. Every fan letter wanted the same things — ‘Can you send us an 8×10 picture, autographed?’ Thousands of letters. See, we had to pay for that. This didn’t leave much money for us to do anything. In fact, nothing.”

Dan Block, a friend of Dustin’s, also revealed the actor told him he made “$1,250 per week.”

“Dustin started telling me more about how much he made or how much he didn’t make,” Block recounted, adding, “Dustin alleged that his parents were stealing his money or taking his money.”

Dustin took the accusations public and claimed his parents “wasted so much of my hard work” and squandered his earnings. Mark shared he confronted Dustin about the accusations, adding, “It really made me upset.”

“I told him, ‘Why are you throwing me under the bus, when I can’t pop myself on television and go, ‘Uh, no!'” Mark says in the doc.

Saved by the Bell star Ed Alonzo told Page Six that Dustin and Mark seemed like “the best of friends” on set.

“The amount of money we all made was not amazing money that the cast of ‘Friends’ was making. We weren’t making $1 million an episode,” Alonzo added. “I never saw frivolous spending of money. They weren’t driving elaborate cars or going on crazy vacations.”

Alonzo added that Dustin didn’t get “a lot of opportunities” after Saved by the Bell. “He never really found a way to escape, even though he tried to,” he said.

Hollywood Demons is streaming now on HBO Max.