Buckle up, y’all. Topanga Lawrence and Rachel McGuire got back in the same room for the first time in a LONG time. And they had a LOT to say to each other.
During the latest episode of the Boy Meets World rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, hosts Danielle Fisher, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong welcomed their estranged co-star Maitland Ward… It was a big moment consider the bad blood simmering for years between Danielle and Maitland. And while the conversation started out well, it ultimately descended into one of raised voices, accusations, and a LOT of tension!
About 55 minutes in, Danielle just goes for it, asking Maitland a point-blank question about the status of their relationship after falling out years ago:
“Do you hate us?”
Whoa! Let’s rewind… Maitland has definitely implied there was beef. She was supposed to appear on the Boy Meets World sequel series Girl Meets World in 2015 before pivoting into a career in the adult film industry. She even showed up on set… but never actually made it into the show beyond a mention. She said in a podcast interview a couple years back that “some of the cast” didn’t want her on the show. It wasn’t tough to figure out who she meant as there had been another interview earlier in which she’d said she believes Danielle “hates” her.
Related: Selena Gomez In Feud With Former Friend — Who Is Threatening To ‘Expose’ Her!
OK, back to the present, when Maitland reiterates that line of thinking:
“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.”
Oof! After that, the pair engage in a back and forth about who did what. Maitland brings up how in 2013, she went to send Danielle a “heartfelt” message on Facebook… Only to realize Danielle had unfriended her! Damn!
Danielle claims she didn’t know of the message’s existence until 2022 as it was lost in the “graveyard” of her inbox. Apparently, Will had asked Maitland if she’d be interested in coming on the show around that time, and she aired her dismay over the message… So Will made Danielle aware of the situation, who went and found the message in her inbox and asked for Maitland’s number to have a conversation in private. OK, so why didn’t that happen? Danielle claims Maitland was the one who slapped that olive branch to the ground:
“You wrote back to Will, ‘No, let’s just save it for the podcast.’”
WTF?? She claims the porn star preferred to “rock the stats” by discussing their beef on the show. Maitland maintains she felt Danielle’s attempt to talk privately was “disingenuous” after the Girls Meets World debacle:
“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.”
Danielle firmly opposes any idea that she felt Maitland was stealing her shine, and claimed that the Girl Meets World set was “tumultuous” for her in general, not just because of one person. She tells Maitland:
“I felt a lot of different things being on that set… I am sorry that you thought I had something personally against you.”
Maitland asserts:
“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.”
Oof. You never want to jump to conclusions in arguments — even if someone has given you no good reason for their actions. It always makes things worse. And in this case it led Danielle to bring up how Maitland has spoken ill of the podcast in the media on multiple occasions. But Maitland flips it right back on Danielle, claiming the reason she’s so down on the podcast is because Topanga was first! She mentions how Danielle had a falling out with co-star Ben Savage and creator Michael Jacobs and started getting all negative about the show — and she has such fond memories of it, that made her upset? Hmm…
That… doesn’t sound right actually. She’s talked recently about how sexualized she realized she was on that show. And though she was 21, she was new in the business and not fully aware of what was going on — or ready for it. So the idea she was blasting Pod Meets World out of a sense of loyalty to Boy Meets World? We don’t know, people are complicated. But it feels like a stretch when the one person we know she had an issue with was Danielle, and it was for other reasons than discussions about the show.
Speaking of the podcast, though, Maitland claims it’s Danielle who wanted to save it for ratings. She argues she was only brought on for this “grilling session,” adding:
“Let’s be honest about this. You’re trying to go at me now to get the ratings because you know that people will be interested. I just wanted to remember the good times.”
To which Danielle responds:
“I’m not the one who wanted to go for ratings… This is what you asked for.”
It’s just so much. And SO messy! We have to say, they’re both right about the ratings being good though. This is MUST LISTEN STUFF here! You can check out the full podcast episode (below):
What are your thoughts, Perezcious readers??
[Images via Danielle Fishel & Maitland Ward/Instagram, & ABC/Disney+]
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