Boy Meets World star William Daniels — who played the beloved Mr. Feeny in the ’90s sitcom — and his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, recently clarified remarks about having an open marriage as they prepare to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary.
During a joint interview with the Daily Mail published on May 18, Bartlett, 96, explained that her 2023 comments about what happened early on in her relationship with Daniels, 99, were misconstrued.
The actress, who played Grace Snider in Little House on the Prairie and had a recurring role as Dean Lila Bolander in Boy Meets World, explained that she and Daniels never directly discussed having an open marriage.
“It’s funny, the press will pick up on something and make more of it than it was,” Bartlett told the Daily Mail. “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.”
She continued, “It was non-spoken. Bill and I never sit down and make rules. 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. … But our lives did go in different directions occasionally.”
In January 2023, Bartlett told Fox News Digital that she and Daniels had a “bit of an open marriage” not long after they married in 1951. She described that time in their relationship as “very painful.”
“That didn’t work well,” she admitted. “And it was a time when people were doing that. 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. But I don’t know if there was a lack of commitment a little bit, and that’s not good. So there was a lot of pain connected with any transgression, with any extramarital thing.”
Next month, on June 30, Williams and Bartlett will celebrate 75 years of marriage.
“I wouldn’t be with anyone else in my life than this woman sitting next to me,” Daniels told the Daily Mail.
Bartlett shared, “It just happened. You don’t plan for it. You really don’t plan for it. I’m not at all romantic or anything like that. I’m a big believer in today, you know? And then all of the sudden it’s 75 years. It’s kind of amazing, I must say. ‘It is amazing, especially in our business.”
Boy Meets World aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000. (Fun fact: Mr. Feeney and Dean Bolander married in Season 6.) In 2014, a spinoff titled Girl Meets World premiered, and it aired for three seasons before ending in 2017.
Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World, streaming on Disney+
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