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Will Friedle is still coming to terms with his changing relationship with Ben Savage.
On the Feb. 24 episode of his Boy Meets World rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, Friedle, 48, and his cohosts Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong spoke to Maitland Ward, who played Rachel McGuire on Boy Meets World. Ward and Fishel got into a heated argument about their time on the show, Ward’s criticism of the podcast and their relationship. But during the discussion, Friedle also reflected on his relationship with Savage, 44, who played his on-screen little brother.
“There’s a divide too because you guys hate Ben and you guys hate [Boy Meets World creator Michael Jacobs],” Ward, 48, alleged during the episode.
“I don’t hate Ben or Michael,” Friedle said, while Fishel, 43, added, “We absolutely do not hate either of them.” Ward allowed that “hate is a strong word.”
Friedle went on to explain his perspective. “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.” Fishel said she feels “exactly the same way.”
“He won’t speak to us,” Friedle continued. “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.” Ward admitted that she didn’t really know the “history.”
Savage starred in Boy Meets World — which ran from 1993 to 2000 — as Cory Matthews. Friedle played older brother Eric, while Fishel played friend-turned-wife Topanga and Strong played best friend Shawn. Savage and Fishel reprised their roles in the sequel series Girl Meets World, which aired from 2014 to 2017. Friedle and Strong both appeared in the series as well.
In 2023, the trio of podcast hosts revealed that Savage had stopped speaking to them three years earlier. “He just kind of disappeared from our lives,” Fishel told Variety at the time. She said it was particularly surprising because he had been so supportive of her in 2019 when she delivered her son early. “We were just so, so close, especially during that time. He was checking in with me regularly,” she said.
“He ghosted us,” she said.
Friedle told the outlet it was a “sore subject” and that he had tried to contact Savage many times. “He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day,” he said. “We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity.”
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Friedle said that at one point he called him every day for a month, but Savage never answered. “I tried and tried and tried for months, until finally, my wife was like, ‘Why are you doing this to yourself? He obviously doesn’t want you in his life,’ ” he said.
Fishel said, “If there’s anything this podcast has taught me, it’s that everyone is on their own journey and having their own experiences that can be perceived many different ways, depending on your POV.”
Savage, who ran for Congress in 2023, has not commented on his relationship with his former castmates. He married Tessa Angermeier that same year, though it wasn’t clear if any of his costars were present.
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