After shifting into adult films six years ago, Boy Meets World’s Maitland Ward is now more fulfilled than ever.
Ward, who played Rachel McQuire in the ABC coming-of-age sitcom’s later seasons, said during an interview with Fox News Digital, published on Saturday, March 15, that her professional pivot has earned her a new level of respect.
“I really think people treat me with more respect now, honestly, especially even in Hollywood right now,” Ward, 48, told the outlet. “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.
The actress, who appeared on Boy Meets World from 1998 to 2000 and starred prior to that in The Bold and the Beautiful from 1994 to 1996, explained how positive she has felt since entering the adult film industry in 2029.
“I really feel like I have a lot of positivity around it,” Ward said. “I’m able to create my own brand, my own content, the way I want to create it. I didn’t get anybody coming out hating me for it or anything. Everybody thought people were just going to rip me apart, and I was going to be judged and raked across the coals, but I got so much positivity.”
Ward also shared information on the projects she was currently working on, detailing that was “creating full-length movies,” and working with a female director to create, “these long, erotic, pornographic art pieces.”
She added that she has found increased self-confidence through her work. “Just to be naked by myself and be confident in my body and myself, I would never have been able to do that [before],” Ward said. “Porn has really given that to me, that empowerment, to be able to stand in my own skin, to be able to create projects that I want to create and be proud of. When you succeed at it, it’s like you feel so much more confident, because you’ve done something like nobody else has done.”
Aside from her professional pursuits, Ward recently attracted headlines after engaging in a war of words with former Boy Meets World costar Danielle Fishel. Tension between Ward and Fishel, 43, began on the February 23 episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast when Fishel asked Ward, “Do you hate us?” referring to the podcast’s cohosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
Ward responded, “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.” (Girl Meets World was a spinoff series that ran from June 2014 to January 2017 and featured Fishel as well as other Boy Meets World cast members except Strong, 45, and Friedle, 48.)
Ward said in an interview with TooFab, published on February 25, that the pair’s heated confrontation surprised her. “I’m a little — I won’t say shaken up or anything. I’m just surprised by the whole situation, and I’ve had a little time to reflect on it,” she said. “It just felt uneasy to have people that you called friends — especially in the past, I thought Danielle was my friend — I can see that she did not like me, and she has harbored not liking me through the years, but it’s sad to me too.”
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