Pod Meets World, the beloved rewatch podcast hosted by former Boy Meets World co-stars, shocked fans Sunday when two ex cast members got into a heated argument.
The Feb. 23 episode included a never-before-seen warning: “This episode contains a bunch of adult language and subject matter. Please proceed with caution.”
The podcast, started in 2022 and hosted by Boy Meets World alum Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle, grew intense when they began to clash with former co-star Maitland Ward, who played Rachel McGuire.
Nearly an hour in, after a general discussion of the actress’ X-rated film career, co-host Danielle Fishel posed a tense question to Ward.
“Do you hate us?” she asked.
“No, I do not hate you,” said Ward. “I think that you hate me, because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World, and that was hurtful.”
Fishel, who began her role as Topanga Lawrence-Matthews at only 12, worked alongside Ward on the ABC sitcom’s sixth and seventh seasons.
At that time, Ward felt excluded and disregarded by Fishel. She felt like Fishel was jealous and nervous that Ward would turn all eyes toward her. “There was some beef between us, and I didn’t get it,” she said. “I didn’t know if you thought I was trying to steal attention.”
Fishel claims she doesn’t recall any tension between the two. Still, the set was difficult for the young actress, who said it was a “tumultuous” place. “I felt very ostracized. I felt very criticized,” she said, later adding, “I am sorry that you thought I had something personally against you.”
But the spat didn’t end there. Fishel later became frustrated while insisting Ward had criticized the cast in a 2022 TMZ interview. In the video, Ward emphasizes the feud between the duo and references her memoir My Escape from Hollywood, where she documents her pivot to working in adult films. “I say in my book, it’s the absolute truth—Danielle does not like me,” she said.
“She’s more straight-laced about things and she didn’t like that I was doing sexy things and getting a lot of attention for it,” she added. “That was kind of a competition too, between us.”
In the clip, Ward adds that while Fishel was invited to her 2006 wedding, she didn’t get the same invite. Ward wasn’t asked to Fishel’s wedding, and when she wrote her former co-star a celebratory note, she never received a response. Ward later found out that Fishel didn’t see the message because she had clicked “unfriend.”
In 2022, when co-host Will Friedle asked Ward to be a Pod Meets World guest, she brought up the unanswered message. When he told Fishel, she logged back in to view it, and asked Ward for her number.
But Ward wanted to “save it for the podcast,” said Fishel, thinking that it would “rock the stats.” Ward explained that she thought she would be a guest imminently, but wasn’t invited until three years later, when the rewatch got to her appearance in season six.
The two went back and forth for a while. Ward called Fishel “disingenuous.” Fishel said that Ward “dragged our names through the mud” and thought it was actually disingenuous of Ward to appear just for the stats.
It’s not the only drama between the cast. The podcast also highlighted the apparent hostility between former co-star Ben Savage, who played the lead role of Cory Matthews, and show creator Michael Jacobs. Savage no longer speaks to the co-host crew.
Ward asserted that the group’s fracture materialized because “you hate Ben and you guys hate Michael.”
They all denied the claim, but Friedle did express bitterness about the strained relationship. “I can’t stand the fact he won’t speak to us,” said Friedle, who played Eric Matthews. “Ben absolutely one day woke up and said, ‘I don’t want Will in my life,' and never told me why.”
Ward called the former cast out for disliking both Savage and Jacobs, and went on to criticize the podcast for negativity, 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.”
Fishel turned it back on Ward, saying this is what she asked for: “I’m not the one who wanted to go for ratings.”
The conversation only grew more intense when Ward brought up how the group has careers because of Jacobs, who launched the show in 1993.
Rider Strong, this time, countered her. “So is the price we pay for that... silence?” he asked. “Dishonesty?
While Fishel later affirmed that she doesn’t hate Ward, she accused her ex-colleague of using the reunion to get more eyes on her.
“She felt like this was an opportunity for her to get press by having conflict,” said Fishel. “Which I am just not your girl to do that.”
