Boy Meets World alum Maitland Ward hasn’t been shy about exposing unknown anecdotes from her time on the ABC hit in her memoir Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood. In talking about her time in the TGIF sitcom, Ward highlighted her not-so-great relationship with former co-star Danielle Fishel, calling Fishel out for her rude on-set behavior during the former's return for Girl Meets World. It seemed like the riff between the two former co-stars may have widened as the actress added more accusations to Fishel hating her presence on the GMW set.
The Boy Meets World star offered up more info about her quasi-feud with Fishel when she was caught out in public by TMZ. Ward seemed just as puzzled currently about the GMW incident as she did in her buzzy memoir, and went on to insinuate that the rift between her and Danielle Fishel had much to do with the character Rachel’s sexy persona as compared to Topanga’s more buttoned-up girl-next-door appeal. Maitland Ward spilled more about the awkward interaction between the two actresses during her visit to the sequel series’ set, saying:
Yeah, I mean I found it kind of interesting. I say in my book and it’s the absolute truth: Danielle does not like me. I don’t know. And I think it has to do with the sexier stuff. But this goes back to Girl Meets World, because she went to my wedding; we were great. And so, nothing happened – my wedding was in 2006 – and I hadn’t seen her in some years and then we saw each other on the Girl Meets World set and I was like ready to hug her and she’s like, ‘Hi, [then turn and walked off].’ Like that’s it. And I was like, ‘Whoa.’ And that’s all she said to me the entire time.
Ward’s theory may be a stretch but given the timeline between her wedding and her Girl Meets World appearance, there may be a bit of truth to her recount. It seemed like something shifted in their relationship between the two events. Of course, Fishel hasn’t overtly addressed Ward’s recent accusations, but as it's been stated on the BMW rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, the show’s producers seemingly stoked competitive attitudes amongst the young cast, a headspace that may have carried on for some of them. As such, it wouldn’t be impossible to picture Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward being at odds despite both shows' feel-good nature.
But not every relationship with her BMW co-stars is as rocky as the one with Danielle Fishel. Maitland Ward has heaped nothing but praise for Will Friedle, who’s been supportive of her porn career, despite claims that he doesn't partake in viewing. Here's how she spoke of Friedle:
Will Friedle has...he’s been wonderful; he’s really sweet. Says he will never watch anything that I do, but he supports me in it.
Recalling her Girl Meets World set visit again, Ward thought back to the mini-BMW reunion as she recounted the love she received from Friedle and Rider Strong during her surprise pop-up. The love she received from her male co-stars made her interaction with Danielle Fishel even more bizarre to her.
It was kind of like a reunion for everybody. I saw Will and Ryder and we were hugging. So that was weird. I don’t know, I really don’t.
At least Maitland Ward still had the respect and love from some stars who've been accepting of her lucrative career shift into adult films. It seemed like Ward still doesn’t know why Fishel was so cold to her outside of her theory. Hopefully, things between the two actresses will work out, similar to Fishel’s repaired relationship with former co-star Trina McGee.
In the meantime, fans can revist every Rachel moment by rewatching all seven seasons of Boy Meets World with a Disney+ subscription. There are new and returning TV premieres to watch this Fall once you’re done bingeing the classic sitcom. While Fishel hasn’t made an official comment, Maitland Ward’s memoir is out now for anyone and everyone to dive into.
