Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle opened up about the strained relationship with their Boy Meets World co-star Ben Savage, saying the silence began after he declined to join their Pod Meets World rewatch podcast in 2022 and reportedly cut off communication. In
Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle didn’t skirt around the silence.
During their new documentary, Doc Meets World, the Boy Meets World co-stars spoke directly about a rift with Ben Savage that’s left them wondering what’s going on in each other’s lives—especially now that Savage is building a family of his own.
The tension reportedly started after Fishel, Friedle, and Rider Strong launched their rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, in 2022. The trio hoped Savage would join them, but he declined—and allegedly stopped communicating with his former Disney Channel costars altogether.
In their documentary and a separate interview with People, Friedle described how the missing piece still hits during recording. “It’s been hard. I mean. just today. literally we were recording an episode this morning of ‘Pod Meets World’ and there came a question that we all wanted to know. that we know if Ben had been on with us. it would have been answered like that. and we would have heard a great story. ” he said. “There’s so many times I want to pick up the phone and still do. I know I’m shouting into the void, but I’m going to keep doing it. I haven’t given up on my friend. And I’m hoping that he comes back into our lives at some point. and when he does. we’re going to have a lot to talk about.”.
For Fishel, the hardest part isn’t just the podcast absence—it’s missing major moments in Savage’s life. “I love imagining him in this new chapter of his life as a dad,” she said. “I know he has had a baby girl. He’s now a husband. So I love just thinking about him [in that capacity].”
Savage, 45, married Tessa Angermeier in 2023. They welcomed their little girl in November 2025.
Fishel said she and Savage talked about his future well before any of that happened. “We talked a lot about how he looked forward to being a dad someday,” she explained. “So I like imagining this phase of life that he’s in now. And it makes me sad sometimes when I think about the fact that I would love to just know. like. ‘How’s it going?. What’s happening now?. What are the milestones that are being checked off?’”.
She also made clear she understands why someone might not want to revisit the past. Fishel said she understands not everyone “wants to look back over their past with a fine-tooth comb” and discuss “uncomfortable truths” openly. Still, she’s hopeful their friendship can continue.
“I would never try to shove that perspective down somebody’s throat and make them do it, and it wasn’t for him,” she said. “And so I understand that. I’m not upset about that. I think when the time is right, our story of our friendship will continue, and if not, then I’m wrong.”
Fishel, Friedle, Rider Strong, and Savage all starred in Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000. When the show returned as a reboot—Girl Meets World—in the mid-2010s, both Savage and Fishel signed on.
Right now, the show’s family feels incomplete. But Friedle’s message was blunt and ongoing: he’s still picking up the phone in his mind, and Fishel is still holding onto the idea that the friendship story doesn’t have to be finished.
Danielle Fishel Will Friedle Ben Savage Pod Meets World Doc Meets World Boy Meets World Girl Meets World Rider Strong Tessa Angermeier People interview