What’s the Boy Meets World controversy? Truth behind shocking podcast fight
Boy Meets World stars Maitland Ward and Danielle Fishel got into a heated exchange during the Pod Meets World Podcast – here’s what happened.
Boy Meets World star Maitland Ward just went on the Pod Meets World podcast, and while it was a chance to reminisce, the episode descended when she got into a spat with former co-star Danielle Fishel.
For context, Boys Meets World was the ultimate ‘90s kid sitcom, having run from 1993 to 2000. The story centers around Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) as he goes through the trials and tribulations of teenagehood.
In 2022, fellow stars of the classic TV show, Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle, launched Pod Meets World, a podcast in which they break down episodes of the sitcom, share BTS memories, and interview cast and crew.
The latest episode brings on Rachel star Maitland Ward, who’s since transitioned to the adult movie industry. While they spoke on this topic for some time, the conversation took a turn when Fishel asked Ward point blank, “Do you hate us?”
Maitland Ward and Danielle Fishel controversy explainedABCThe pair got into a heated back-and-forth, with accusations including: Fishel shunned Ward in 2015 on the set of spinoff Girl Meets World; Ward “drags them through the mud” to the press; the hosts speak “negatively” of Ben Savage and show creator Michael Jacobs; and Ward wanted to save the spat for podcast “ratings”.
Things reached boiling point when Ward seemingly left the episode, but she soon returned, explaining that her power went out. Eventually they’re able to move on, but the atmosphere is still tense.
The conversation starts at around the 1:07 mark (including ads), when Fishel highlights the time when they started the podcast in 2022. She asks, “Maybe a more broad, general question for you is, do you hate us?”
“No, I do not hate you,” says Ward. “I thought that you hate me because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World and that was hurtful.” Fishel says she did speak to her, but Ward replies, “No, not really. You unfriended me on Facebook.”
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Ward had sent Fishel a message around the time of the latter’s wedding in 2013, but Fishel didn’t reply. It appears there was a misunderstanding, as Fishel insists she’s “not a Facebook person” and hadn’t seen the message.
Ward then sent a message to Friedle about it, and when Fishel saw the message, she allegedly felt bad and asked him for Ward’s number.
“I said to Will, ‘Will you please ask Maitland if I could have her phone number so that I could apologize to her?’ and you wrote back to Will, ‘No, let’s just save it for the podcast. It’ll be great for the ratings,’” she says.
However, Ward accuses her of being “disingenuous” in this instance, and says she thought the podcast episode was going to be soon after so thought it was best to save the chat.
Fishel also alludes to the idea that Ward goes to the press to trash talk them, stating, “It seems like almost any time the podcast is in the news in the press, there’s a quickly followed up TMZ interview,” but Ward says reporters “find her in the streets.”
Talks also turn to the 2023 revelation that Savage no longer speaks to Fishel, Friedle, and Strong, with Ward saying, “So I think there’s a divide too because you guys hate Ben and you guys hate Michael.”
The hosts insist they don’t hate either of them, before Friedle chips in to say, “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.
Creative Commons“And that’s what it is: he won’t speak to us. 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.”
Although the spat eventually simmered down, Fishel later says, “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 play and in role-playing, she felt like this was an opportunity for her to get press by having conflict.”
She adds, “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.”
Reaction to Boy Meets World podcast episodeCreative CommonsAlthough the reaction to the heated exchange has been mixed, there have been many listeners jumping in to defend Ward, saying she was ambushed on the podcast.
Taking to X/Twitter, one wrote, “Team Maitland Ward. They had her on as a guest and ambushed her. If Danielle thought she wasn’t sincere by wanting to talk it out on the pod, then why have her on in the first place? Especially since they continued the burial after the conversation ended.”
“Yeah, it came off as really disingenuous and condescending on Danielle’s part. Lost respect,” another agreed, while a third added, “Danielle Fishel was needlessly caustic and every bit the aged-out mean girl.
“She also gaslit her throughout the interview. For example: ‘I didn’t unfriend you on Facebook.’ Then, with three minutes left of the interview, admitted it was entirely possible she unfriended Maitland.”
However, others felt the argument was petty or they were just there for the drama. “‘We weren’t friends on Facebook’ tells everything we need to know about how irrelevant this dispute is,” said one.
Another wrote, “The Topanga vs Maitland Ward drama is not how I expected to start my week but goodness gracious it is something wild.”
You can listen to the Pod Meets World podcast on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and iHeart. If you’re looking for TV shows to watch, check out the series coming to streaming this month and the best shows of 2025 so far.
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