“Boy Meets World” Star Will Friedle Said He “Can’t Stand The Fact” Ben Savage Won’t Speak To Him After Ben Abruptly “Ghosted” His Former Costars Mid-Text Conversation In 2020

After all, Ben completes the quartet of young stars who shot to fame on the ABC sitcom that ran for seven seasons between 1993 and 2000, with the actor-turned-politician just 11 years old when he landed the role of the titular “boy,” Cory Matthews. Danielle was 12 when she was cast as his love interest, Topanga Lawrence, Rider was 13 and played Cory’s best friend Shawn Hunter, and Eric was 17 when he landed the role of Eric Matthews, Cory’s big brother.

It was initially thought that all four stars had remained close in the years since Boy Meets World’s finale as they regularly attended conventions together, and they even all reprised their roles for the show’s sequel series Girl Meets World, which premiered in 2014. This show ran for three seasons, with Ben and Danielle series regulars, and Will and Rider having multiple guest appearances.

When Pod Meets World first launched, the hosts said that they had invited Ben to be a part of it, and respected his decision not to be. But in a 2023 interview with Variety, they admitted that there’s a lot more to the situation than meets the eye as they reflected on the “sore subject” of their relationship with Ben.

And while he wasn’t interested in being on the pod, it didn’t seem as though there were any hard feelings between Ben and his former castmates — especially as he supported Danielle when her first son was born early and had to spend time in the NICU back in 2019. She recalled: “We were just so, so close, especially during that time. He was checking in with me regularly.”

But just one year later, in 2020, Ben apparently abruptly cut Danielle, Rider, and Will from his life, with Danielle telling Variety: “He ghosted us.”

“He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day,” Will added. “We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided: I don’t want this person in my life anymore."

At the time of the interview, all three stars confirmed that none of them had spoken to Ben for three years — but not for lack of trying. In fact, Will confessed to calling Ben every single day for a month to try and find out what had happened. 

He explained: “I finally sent a text saying: ‘I’ve known you for 30 years, what’s going on?' I said: ‘I’m gonna call you every day until you tell me not to call you anymore.’ That lasted about three weeks or a month, every single day."

Detailing why this loss was so painful for him, Will added: “I’ve known him since he was 11 years old, and we have a shared history. And we were doing these conventions together, and we were getting to know each other as adults, and then he just kind of went: ‘I’m done with you.’ 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.’”

As I am sure you have seen by now, in this particular episode, Danielle had somewhat of an awkward confrontation with their guest Maitland Ward, who played Rachel in seasons 6 and 7 of Boy Meets World and has since found success as an adult movie star. An hour into the interview, Danielle abruptly asked Maitland: “Do you hate us?” as she referenced some of the less-than-flattering things Maitland had said about the hosts in the press over the years.

But Will was keen to set the record straight, saying: “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. And that’s what it is: He won’t speak to us.”

As previously mentioned, Ben has pivoted from acting to politics in recent years, and in March 2023, he ran for a congressional seat in California. At the time, Danielle, Will, and Rider made the uncharacteristic decision to address this on their podcast after being inundated with questions from listeners, and while Will stated that he would never publicly speak about politics, the other two hosts had a little more to say.

Let me know your thoughts on Ben apparently ghosting the Boy Meets World cast in the comments below!