“It’s funny, the press will pick up on something and make more of it than it was,” she told the Daily Mail in a recent interview. “There was never any discussion as to what we were going to do, but in 75 years, the two of you together, you know, it would be abnormal if you … weren’t attracted occasionally to other people.” Bartlett added that, “there have been times, yeah, both of us, on both sides,” which she wrote about in her 2023 memoir,Middle
of the Rainbow. The actress explained that she and Daniels — best known for playing Mr. Feeny on the beloved family sitcom Boy Meets World — never discussed the arrangement. “Bill and I never sit down and make rules,” she said. “We never sit down and talk about these things. We just don’t. We just live our lives. And if he’s away for a year, he’s away for a year. “Our lives just went on, but we never got unhinged … We never got unhinged,
but our lives did go in different directions occasionally.” The Little House on the Prairie star had previously revealed that the two had an “open marriage,” which was “very painful” and “didn’t work well.” “And it was a time when people were doing that,” she continued. “It was at a time in New York when there was a lot of sex and a lot of people doing all kinds of things, you know — very free.” Bartlett confessed to having had an affair “that lasted
a few months” with a “slightly boring” actor around 1959, eight years after she married Daniels. Daniels, meanwhile, stepped outside their marriage with a producer in the ’70s that left Bartlett “devastated” and she realised she “could no longer tolerate any kind of open marriage.” Bartlett appeared a little shocked that the couple will be celebrating a milestone anniversary. “You don’t plan for it. You really don’t plan for it,” she said. “I’m not at all romantic or anything like that. I’m a big believer
in today, you know? And then all of a sudden it’s 75 years. It’s kind of amazing, I must say.” Daniels, for his part, sounds as besotted with Bartlett as the day he first spied her at Northwestern University. “I wouldn’t be with anyone else in my life than this woman sitting next to me,” he gushed. During their marriage, they played each other’s spouses in three different projects, including “Boy Meets World” and “St. Elsewhere.” Ten years into their marriage, they welcomed son William
Jr., who died 24 hours later. They went on to adopt two sons. This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission.
open marriage, Melissa Gilbert Bartlett, William Daniels, Middle of the Rainbow, Boy Meets World, St. Elsewhere, Page Six