As his former Boy Meets World costars’ publicly discuss their estrangement, Ben Savage shared a cryptic social media post about who he’s spending time with at this chapter in his life.
“Good company,” Savage, 45, captioned two Instagram photos on Monday, June 15, that showed him proudly holding his daughter, 7 months, as he stood in a suit against a leafy backdrop. (Savage and wife Tessa Angermeier have not publicly shared the name of their daughter, the couple’s first child.)
The post came one week after Will Friedle, who starred as older brother Eric Matthews to Savage’s Cory Matthews on the 1990s ABC sitcom, exclusively told Us Weekly that he wanted to speak about their estrangement “to his face.” Fellow costar Danielle Fishel, who played Savage’s on-screen love interest Topanga Lawrence, added that discussing issues with Savage in person would be “good.”
After wrapping Boy Meets World in 2000 after seven seasons — and returning for a three-season spinoff from 2014 to 2016 — Savage has distanced himself from the show’s cast and wider Hollywood. A documentary titled Doc Meets World, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 6, delved into the current divide between Savage and Boy Meets World alums including Rider Strong, who played Savage’s on-screen best friend, Shawn Hunter.
“Ben refused to do the [“Pod Meets World” recap] podcast, but we still communicated with him, [were] still on friendly terms, we thought,” Strong, 46, claimed in the documentary. “He unfollowed us on Instagram and blocked our phone numbers. I feel sorry that he’s missing out on the experience that Danielle and Will and I are having.” (“Pod Meets World” hosts Strong, Fishel, 45, and Friedle, 49, launched the podcast in June 2022.)
In Doc Meets World, Friedle is seen attempting to text Savage, showing cameras years’ worth of messages that he sent to him without garnering any response. He added that he tries to text Savage “probably at least once a month” in the hope of getting a reply one day.
“I really do miss him. He’s arguably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Friedle is seen saying to Strong in the documentary.
Fishel spoke to Us about Savage’s absence in the trio’s podcast in July 2022, claiming at the time that there was plenty of discussion about how to include Savage in the project. “We talked about all the different ways we could do it. And at the end of our conversations, Ben said, ‘I just don’t think it’s for me.’ And we get it. So we’re respecting his decision,” she shared. “And if he eventually wants to come on, we’ll leave that door open.”
In a June interview with People, Fishel commented on Savage moving on with his life as a father. “I love imagining him in this new chapter of his life as a dad,” she told the outlet. “We [once] talked a lot about how he looked forward to being a dad someday.”
Savage, for his part, has never publicly commented on any rift with his former Boy Meet World costars, but Bonnie Bartlett, the wife of William Daniels, who portrayed teacher and mentor George Feeny on the series, told Page Six in May that the cast didn’t always get along while filming. “They had some problems working together as … they grew up,” she told the outlet. “They’ve done well — all of them. That’s very unusual in a cast with children. They’ve done a good job of that. They’re good people. They’re all good people.”
