Have Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward ever worked together? The two clash in the latest episode of the Pod Meets World podcast

Boy Meets World co-stars Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward got into a heated discussion on the Monday, February 24 episode of the podcast Pod Meets World. Fishel co-hosts the podcast with former co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle.

Besides working together in Boy Meets World, Fishel and Maitland were co-stars in its spinoff series, Girl Meets World. The discussion on the podcast started as it went back and forth on Danielle Fishel's tense friendship with Maitland Ward throughout the years. Fishel started the conversation by asking Ward:

“Do you hate us?”

Ward, who starred in adult films after playing Rachel McGuire on the popular ABC sitcom, replied:

“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.”

Fishel then denied ignoring Ward on the set of the spinoff series of Boy Meets World, which ran from 2014 to 2017. Ward further said that when she tried to message Fishel on Facebook in 2013, she found that Fishel had unfriended her.

However, Fishel responded that she seldom ever uses Facebook and only saw Ward's message in 2022, when she wanted to invite her to the show. Maitland here referred to another show she worked on with Danielle Fishel.

---

Exploring Danielle Fishel and Maitland Ward's characters on Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World

Ward and Fishel talked about their strained friendship over the years (Image via Getty)

Danielle Fishel played the character of Topanga Lawrence in Boy Meets World and its spinoff, Girl Meets World. Her character was an eccentric girl who was the daughter of two grown hippies. However, she had changed into a much more typical teenager by the time they went to high school.

Topanga started dating her classmate Cory in season 3, and the two remained together for the rest of the series. Originally a guest character, Topanga had an unconventional, hippie demeanor and cared about harmony and the planet.

However, Danielle Fishel's character later became a show regular and changed from an odd girl to an overthinking academic in later seasons.

Fishel's Topanga Matthews later became one of the key characters in Girl Meets World. She played the role of Cory's wife and the mother of Riley and Auggie. Her aspirations of becoming a lawyer were fulfilled when she and Cory left their hometown of Philadelphia in 2000 to pursue a highly sought-after internship at the law firm of Elliot, Brown & Montgomery.

A few months after Riley's birth, in 2002, she received a Master of Political Science by correspondence at Pennbrook while she was still an intern. She joined a firm after graduating and passing the New York Bar Exam, and she has since advanced to the rank of junior partner.

In order to protect the local bakery for its founder, Mrs. Svorski, she and Cory made an investment in it. After Mrs. Svorski's death, the bakery was transformed into a more contemporary business and renamed Topanga's.

Maitland Ward also played the same character and had the same storyline in both series. Her character, Rachel Kimberly McGuire, is a tall, attractive girl who unexpectedly entered Jack and Eric's lives at the beginning of season 6. They decided to let her live with them after she ended her relationship with her boyfriend.

The boys then started competing for her attention before realizing that their friendship was too important. At one point in the series, she and Topanga also shared a room. Rachel grew close to Angela and Topanga as one of the bridesmaids at Cory and Topanga's wedding.

---

While talking about their strained friendship in the podcast and recalling their connection, Fishel further stated that she felt her invitation to Ward's wedding in 2006 "came out of nowhere." Her feeling stemmed from the fact that the two had not talked since the end of Boy Meets World in 2000. Even though they briefly connected while working on the spinoff, they lost touch again.

On the other hand, neither Maitland Ward nor Danielle Fishel has further commented about their exchanges on the podcast.