Maitland Ward Accuses Danielle Fishel of Using Her to Boost Ratings on 'Boy Meets World' Podcast

The latest episode of Pod Meets World featured a heated exchange between Danielle Fishel and a guest.

According to Variety, Sunday’s episode of the rewatch podcast featured Maitland Ward, who played Rachel McGuire on Boy Meets World. She later appeared on the Disney Channel spinoff Girl Meets World in 2015, alongside Fishel and Ben Savage.

However, Ward and Fishel haven’t talked much in the years since they worked together, with Ward also accusing Fishel of having beef on the Girl Meets World set.

After discussing Ward’s career as an adult film star, Fishel asked, “Do you hate us?” Ward replied, “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 was hurtful.”

According to Ward, after writing a heartfelt note to Fishel on Facebook, Ward realized Fishel had deleted her on the social media platform. Fishel isn’t an avid user and didn’t read the message until 2022. That year, co-host Will Friedle invited Ward onto the podcast. When Fishel found out, she wanted to reach out to Ward.

“You wrote back to Will, ‘No, let’s just save it for the podcast,'” Fishel said on the episode, adding that Ward said it would “rock the stats.”


Ward said on Pod Meets World that Fishel wanting to talk was “disingenuous.” Ward explained that Fishel had an “attitude” on the Girl Meets World set.

“There was some beef between us, and I didn’t get it,” Ward said. “I didn’t know if you thought I was trying to steal attention… I was genuinely confused why we wouldn’t be good.”

Fishel then shared that Girl Meets World was a “very difficult set” for her and that she felt “ostracized” and “criticized. I felt a lot of different things being on that set,” she added. “I am sorry that you thought I had something personally against you.”

Ward said she thought Fishel didn’t like that she was getting “a lot of attention.”

At one point, Ward said that when has listened to the podcast, she felt like the three co-hosts, Fishel, Friedle, and Rider Strong spoke negatively about Boy Meets World, show creator Michael Jacobs, and Savage, who no longer speaks to the three co-hosts.

“I think there’s a divide too because you hate Ben and you guys hate Michael,” Ward said, which Fishel, Friedle, and Strong denied.

“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,” Friedle responded. “I can show you the last three years, literally, of messages, and in the middle of a conversation with Ben, he just bailed on me. Ben absolutely one day woke up and said, ‘I don’t want Will in my life,’ and never told me why.”

Ward went on to accuse the co-hosts of “trying to go at me now to get the ratings because you know that people will be interested.” She added, "I just wanted to remember the good times.”

Fishel responded, “I’m not the one who wanted to go for ratings… This is what you asked for.” She also said Ward wants to get along with them now but when speaking to the press is “the time when you want to drag our names through the mud.”

As all four cooled off, Fishel commented on the intense conversation, saying that Ward “felt like this was an opportunity for her to get press by having conflict, which I am just not your girl to do that.”