‘Boy Meets World’ star Maitland Ward gets ‘more respect’ as a porn actress

Maitland Ward has finally found “empowerment” in her career — and all she had to do was leave mainstream Hollywood behind.

The Boy Meets World star, who joined the series in season 6 as Rachel McGuire, has shared a startling observation about her transition from sitcom star to adult film actress.

“I really think people treat me with more respect now,” Ward, 48, told Fox News Digital, reflecting on her 2019 pivot to pornography. “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… They’re just much more receptive to the story. And I really feel like I have a lot of positivity around it. I’m able to create my own brand, my own content, the way I want to create it.”

She continued, “Just to be naked by myself and be confident in my body and myself, I would never have been able to do that [before]. 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, to go against the mold and do something that other people haven’t done.”

She went on to say that shooting adult films has been “the most comfortable I have ever felt on a set,” especially when it comes to intimate scenes because “nobody is shy to have the conversation or backs away from it.”

Ward got her start as Jessica Forrester on the long-running soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, before joining the beloved ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World when its main cast departed high school and began their college years. Despite being well-known for the latter role, Ward said she didn’t face much backlash when she decided to venture into the adult film world.

“I didn’t get anybody coming out hating me for it or anything,” she said. “I really got a lot of positivity overall, which shocked everyone I knew. 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 and I think it’s because I was so positive about it, and I was so happy about it.”

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The warm reception to her new career path aside, Ward recently endured an awkward encounter with fellow Boy Meets World alums Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong, when she joined them for an episode of their series rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World.

Though initially friendly, the conversation took a heated turn towards the end, when Fishel confronted Ward about prior drama between them, flat-out asking, “Do you hate us?” 

“No, I do not hate you,” Ward replied. “I think that you hate me because you wouldn’t speak to me on Girl Meets World, and that was hurtful.” 

A tense back-and-forth between Fishel and Ward then ensued, with both women citing various perceived slights from over the years. Though the conversation eventually cooled, Ward later claimed that she thought the confrontation was purposely “orchestrated,” taking issue with the fact that she wasn’t given any heads-up about the conversation veering into that more serious direction. She also pointed out the fact that Fishel waited until the end of the podcast to pose that particular question.

“I thought the show was winding down at that point,” Ward told The New York Post. “And I think she wanted to catch me off guard. She wanted to try to rattle me, and she did. I didn’t expect it.”