Boy Meets World stars Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward got into a tense argument during a podcast interview on Pod Meets World.
The podcast is co-hosted by former Boy Meets World stars Danielle, Will Friedle and Rider Strong.
During the episode, which dropped February 23, Danielle, 43, bluntly asked 48-year-old Maitland, who now pursues a career as an adult film star, ‘So jumping ahead to around the time, let’s say 2022, and we start our podcast, Pod Meets World. Maybe a more broad general question for you is, Do you hate us?’.
‘No, I do not hate you. I think that you hate me, because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World and that’s hurtful,’ Maitland said.
The former co-stars also began discussing why their relationship fell out, due to a Facebook miscommunication and also their lack of a friendship during their time on set.
They also argued over Maitland talking badly about them in public.
Boy Meets World stars Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward got into a tense argument during a podcast interview on Pod Meets World; from left to right: Maitland Ward, Danielle Fishel and Trina McGee
During the episode, which dropped February 23, Danielle, 43, bluntly asked 48-year-old Maitland, who now pursues a career as an adult film star, ‘Do you hate us?’; from left to right: Maitland, Danielle, Rider Strong, Matthew Lawrence, Will Friedle, William Russ, Lindsay Ridgeway, Besty Randle, William Daniel and Ben Savage
Danielle played Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World from 1993 until 2000, and then reprised her role in 2014 until 2017 on Girl Meets World.
Maitland played Rachel McGuire on Boy Meets World and after a handful of roles after the show ended, changed her career from actress to adult film star, appearing in a number of pornographic films and series.
She visited the set of Girl Meets World – the spinoff series – but she ended up not reprising her role as Rachel.
While the interview started well, it took a turn almost an hour in, when Danielle asked Maitland: ‘Do you hate us?’
‘No I do not hate you. I think you hate me, because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World and that was hurtful,’ Matiland said.
Maitland brought up her visit to the Girl Meets World set, accusing of Danielle of ignoring her – after she thought they were friends.
‘You had an attitude about it. There was some beef between us, and I didn’t get it. I didn’t know if you thought I was trying to steal attention… I was genuinely confused why we wouldn’t be good,’ Maitland said.
Danielle apologized to her, explaining that she didn’t have an issue with her and was overwhelmed with a lot of feelings while on set.
The former co-stars also began discussing why their relationship fell out, due to a Facebook miscommunication and also their lack of a friendship during their time on set
‘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 said.
‘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.
At the time Maitland said she thought it was due to the attention she receiving: ‘You didn’t like the fact that I was getting a lot of attention at that time and going off in my own space and taking away that attention.’
Danielle also brought up the fact that Maitland publicly spoke badly about them whenever the podcast was in the news.
Maitland asked her, ‘are you trying to accuse me of using you or are you trying to accuse me of something?’
She also accused them of ‘hating’ their co-star Ben Savage and the show creator Michael Jacobs, to which Will outright denied, noting that one day Ben just stopped talking to him and that he won’t speak to any of them anymore with no reason given.
When Maitland said their podcast is negative, Danielle immediately fought back, telling her: ‘The same way you wrote 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.’
However, Maitland told her: ‘Let’s be honest about this. You’re trying to go at me now to get the ratings going because you know people will be interested. I just want to remember the good times.’
‘I’m not the one who wanted to go for ratings… this is what you asked for,’ and pointed out that she wants positivity now but that she has repeatedly ‘dragged’ their names through the mud publicly.
Danielle played Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World from 1993 until 2000, and then reprised her role in 2014 until 2017 on Girl Meets World; Danielle, Trina, Ben, Maitland, Will, Matthew Lawrence and Rider
Maitland played Rachel McGuire on Boy Meets World and after a handful of roles after the show ended, changed her career from actress to adult film star, appearing in a number of pornographic films and series; Danielle, Maitland and Trina
Danielle apologized to her, explaining that she didn’t have an issue with her and was overwhelmed with a lot of feelings while on set; Danielle played Topanga on Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World
Maitland had sent Danielle a message on Facebook in 2013 – to which Danielle said she doesn’t check the app and didn’t see the note until nine years later after Maitland told Will about it – when he had asked her to be on their podcast.
Danielle had asked for her number to speak to her.
Danielle noted that Maitland told Will she wanted to to save the conversation for a podcast appearance and to ‘rock the stats.’
The star closed out the podcast: ‘Similarly to the way she decided when Girl Meets World and all that stuff was in the press, that that was an opportunity for her to make a name for herself in cosplay and in role playing, she felt like this was an opportunity to get press by having conflict.’
Adding: ‘Which I am just not your girl to do that.’
‘And she thought it was disingenuous for me to reach out to her. I think wanting to do it for stats is disingenuous.’
