Maitland Ward has no regrets about her decision to walk away from mainstream film and television.
Best known for her portrayal of Rachel McGuire on ABC’s “Boy Meets World,” Ward retired from the industry in 2007. For the past six years, she’s appeared exclusively in adult films.
In a Fox News Digital interview published Saturday, Ward said her transition into porn has given her a sense of “empowerment” that she lacked in her youth ― and even her former industry has taken notice.
“I really think people treat me with more respect now, honestly, especially even in Hollywood right now,” she explained. “I’m pitching my memoir into a TV format and talking with people. They’re so respectful, and they’re so positive about my story, especially younger people and different people that I speak to in Hollywood and stuff. They’re just much more receptive to the story.”
Ward acknowledged she feared being shunned by friends and former colleagues when she initially decided to pursue porn. Instead, she found herself receiving “so much positivity” as well as creative freedom she hadn’t previously enjoyed.
“I’m able to create my own brand, my own content, the way I want to create it,” she said.
A native of Long Beach, California, Ward rose to prominence on the CBS soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” in 1994. She joined the cast of “Boy Meets World,” which aired from 1993 to 2000, for its final two seasons. Though her character was referenced on the 2014 spinoff series “Girl Meets World,” she did not appear on-screen.
Ward previously opened up about her foray into the adult film industry in her 2022 memoir, “Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood.”
Last month, she made headlines for a startlingly contentious interview on “Pod Meets World,” the “Boy Meets World” rewatch podcast hosted by her former co-stars Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong.
What began as a jovial reunion between Ward and Fishel devolved into a heated back-and-forth between the two women.
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In her Fox News Digital interview, Ward said she “never expected” the turn that her “Pod Meets World” interview took, and accused Fishel of having been “very two-faced in that situation.”
“Imagine, like, stepping back into a high school situation or college or whatever, and you see old friends and then all of a sudden, every single grievance you’ve ever had with them is, like, fresh on their minds and they want to just come at you,” she said. “It felt like a very toxic situation. I was not trying to create conflict.”
She went on to note: “I think [Fishel] doesn’t enjoy that I have had success from ‘Boy Meets World’ like that, and I think she should be reminded I get attention for other things that I do, too ― it’s not just that.”