Boy Meets World actress-turned-porn star Maitland Ward joined her former costars on the latest discordant episode of the show’s rewatch podcast.
Sadly, most memories of hit TV shows from our childhood have been tainted with reality checks about the past when revisiting them wearing glasses of today. Boy Meets World is yet another beloved sitcom from the ‘90s that left many with life lessons galore only for off-camera politics, cast fallouts and hindsight revelations of the past leaving a bitter aftertaste.
The Feb 24 episode of the Pod Meets World podcast, co-hosted by former Boy Meet World stars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle, welcomed their ex-costar Maitland Ward. It is to be noted that while the original trio have part of the core cast members all through Seasons 1 to 7 as Topanga Lawrence, Shawn Hunter and Eric Matthews, Ward only joined the series in 1998, staying for the final two seasons as Rachel McGuire.
Maitland Ward has since transitioned to the adult entertainment industry. With her as their guest star for the latest episode of the podcast, the stars dug into the Boy Meets World character’s history and her pivoting to OnlyFans and adult films. The discussion also led Danielle Fishel to probe into an alleged ‘beef’ that possibly led Ward to distance herself from her on the sets of the Boy Meets World spinoff, Girl Meets World.
The Disney show aired for three seasons, with Fishel and Ben Savage leading the new generation of characters played by Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard. Rider Strong and Will Friedle made recurring appearances, but Ward didn’t reprise her role.
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Maitland Ward joins former Boy Meets World costars for rewatch podcast
“Do you hate us?” Fishel asks her at one point mid-podcast. “No, I do not hate you,” Ward replied. “I think that you hate me because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World and that was hurtful.”
The actress-turned-adult film star posted from the Disney show’s set on her Instagram in 2013 even though her character didn’t return onscreen. “You had an attitude about it. There was some beef between us, and I didn’t get it,” Ward said of her time on the spinoff. “I didn’t know if you thought I was trying to steal attention… I was genuinely confused why we wouldn’t be good.”
Ward contended that Fishel unfriended her on Facebook, which she possibly realised in 2013 when she sent her a message on the SNS platform. However, since they weren’t friends, Danielle missed it. The Topanga actress clarified that she didn’t use Facebook as much at the time and only found out about the message in 2022 when Will Friedle caught up with Ward and asked her about guest-starring on the podcast.
Danielle further explained that when she asked for Maitland Ward’s number, she “wrote back to Will, ‘No, let’s just save it for the podcast,’” adding that the Rachel actress claimed it would “rock the stats.”
She ultimately joined her former co-stars on the rewatch podcast years later, as her character only appeared at the beginning of the sixth season.
Danielle Fishel apologised + foregrounds her difficult time on Girl Meets World
Speaking of how the Girl Meets World was a “very difficult set” for her, Fishel told Ward, “Let’s put it this way, the memories we have of the fun set of ‘Boy Meets World’ were not the memories of the fun set of ‘Girl Meets World.’”
Danielle eventually apologised to her in an attempt to build bridges again with her former costar. “I went into it expecting it to be, and it wasn’t. It was a rather tumultuous place. I felt very ostracized. I felt very criticized. I felt a lot of different things being on that set… I am sorry that you thought I had something personally against you,” she added.
When things finally eased down, Fishel mentioned how Maitland had spoken negatively of the cast in TMZ interviews “almost any time the podcast is in the news.” Ward responded that photogs had somehow caught up with her on the street because of the continued interest in the show. She then asked, “Are you trying to accuse me of using you, or are you trying to accuse me of something?”
Porn star Maitland Ward accuses the OG cast of hating the Boy Meets World creator
Ward also addressed how “there’s a divide” between the rest of the cast and her because they “hate” Ben Savage and the series creator Michael Jacobs. The co-hosts denied the claims.
Friedle, who played Savage’s onscreen best buddy for life, said, “Ben is one of the most important people I’ve ever met in my life, and I can’t stand the fact that he won’t speak to us. And that’s what it is: He won’t speak to us.” He said he had been speaking to Savage through texts “one day” when “in the middle of a conversation with Ben, he just bailed on me.”
Despite the explanation, Ward went back to the cast members spewing “negative stuff” and going against Michael Jacobs. “The same way you wrote in your book [2024’s My Escape from Hollywood] about your experiences doesn’t mean that they’re negative. They’re just experiences … So you don’t listen to the podcast regularly, but your overall opinion of it is that we are negative about Michael and Ben and the show?” Danielle defended their stance.
Rider Strong stands firm on his sour experience
The situation seemed to slip out of hand again as Maitland accused them of “grilling” her for better ratings, but Fishel snapped back, saying that she was the one who maintained her distance by not talking to her on the phone about their relationship. Meanwhile, Rider Strong didn’t retract from their previous claims against the Boy Meets World creator. “If I’m talking about Michael yelling at me, that’s my experience. I was yelled at. I watched him do things. I can describe that, that’s the truth,” he said.
As Ward pointed out that they had the series to thank for their “careers and lives,” Fished asked, “So is the price we pay for that silence?”
In the end, the show wrapped up on a quieter note, with more apologies and compliments pouring in from either side. Fishel even opened the room for welcoming Ward to podcast again to discuss a season 7 episode of the OG show later.
One should also take into account that the supposed “divide” between Ward and the others’ memories of Michael Jacobs arises from when they actually joined the series. While the present-day porn star came on to play Rachel while she was presumably in her 20s, the original main cast members were either in their teens or not even teens (especially in Fishel’s case).
The new podcast episode titled “Maitland Ward Meets World” also included the warning: “This episode contains adult language and subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.”
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