“Boy Meets World” actor Maitland Ward is speaking out after a podcast reunion with former co-star Danielle Fishel devolved into a contentious, on-air feud.
Speaking to TMZ Tuesday, Ward said she hadn’t heard from Fishel or her co-hosts in the days since the interview and accused her former co-stars of setting her up.
“I really feel like Danielle wanted this moment for me to, like, kind of trap me and make me listen and make the fans listen to … her piece of the story,” she told the outlet. “It wasn’t coming from a place of: ‘Let’s talk and let’s hash it out and forgive each other and apologize on both sides.’ It was more about: ‘I finally got this bitch right here, and I’m going to give it to her,’ you know?”
“It was, like, all of a sudden she turned into Regina George,” she continued, alluding to the “Mean Girls” character portrayed by Rachel McAdams. “Seriously, I was like, ‘What is going on?’”
As of Wednesday, Fishel had not responded publicly to Ward’s TMZ claim. HuffPost has reached out to “Pod Meets World” for comment.
Fishel and Ward portrayed Topanga Lawrence and Rachel McGuire, respectively, on “Boy Meets World,” which aired from 1993 to 2000 on ABC.
Though Ward has abandoned mainstream acting work for an adult film career in recent years, she was interviewed on Monday’s episode of “Pod Meets World,” the “Boy Meets World” rewatch podcast Fishel co-hosts with fellow actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong.
By the end of the interview, however, Ward and Fishel had begun trading barbs about each other’s actions in the years since their series wrapped, seemingly confirming rumors of a behind-the-scenes rift.
Many of the allegations were granular. Ward, for instance, accused Fishel of being “disingenuous” and unfriendly to her on the set of “Girl Meets World,” the “Boy Meets World” spinoff series that aired from 2014 to 2017, and of ignoring a message she’d sent her on Facebook years ago.
As for Fishel, she alleged Ward had used her recent media appearances simply to “drag our names through the mud.”
News of the podcast soon caught the eye of another “Boy Meets World” actor, Trina McGee, who expressed her support for Fishel on Instagram.
“Speaking clearly and holding her ground is the way I like to handle my business also,” she wrote in part. “Sometimes, the ones you uplift only care about their own agenda. They start unnecessary drama, not for truth, but for attention—media chasers, energy usurpers. Instead of riding with you, they’d rather take the plane down just to make themselves look like the hero in the wreckage.”
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Despite any lingering tensions, Ward told TMZ she’s certain she’ll speak to Friedle, Fishel and Strong in the future.
“The truth of the matter is, ‘Boy Meets World’ was such a special time,” she explained. “We’re always going to be connected.”