These are her confessions.
William Daniels’ wife Bonnie Bartlett has confessed to a months-long affair with the “slightly boring” actor.
In her 2023 memoir, In the Middle of the Rainbow, the “Love of My Life” actress said that early in her marriage to the “Boy Meets World” alum, whom she married in 1951, she began looking for “a kinder, gentler man.”
Bartlett, now 96, wrote that in 1959 she had an “affair that lasted several months” with a “slightly boring” actor. However, she admitted that “the sex was good.”
“I never felt guilty because I never felt bound to chastity, and neither did Bill,” she wrote.
The “Little House on the Prairie” alum’s affair eventually fizzled out.
Bartlett wrote that although she was having fun on the sidelines, she was “devastated” when her husband had an affair with a producer in the 1970s. She realized that she “couldn’t stand any kind of open marriage anymore.”
Last week, the longtime couple, who will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary next month, clarified previous statements about their “open marriage.”
“The funny thing is, the press will take something and make it bigger than it was before,” Bartlett told the Daily Mail.
“We never talked about what we would do, but for 75 years you two have been together and it would be unusual if you weren’t… attracted to other people from time to time,” she shared, adding, “Yeah, there were times on both of us, on both sides.”
The “St. Elsewhere” actress explained that she had never discussed an “open” arrangement with Daniels, 99.
“Bill and I never sit down and make rules,” she told the outlet. “We never sit down and discuss these things. We just don’t. We just live our lives. And if he’s been away for a year, he’s been gone for a year.
“Our lives went on, but they were never disrupted…We were never disrupted, but sometimes our lives went in different directions,” Bartlett said.
The actress and Daniels, best known for playing Mr. Feeney on the family sitcom Boy Meets World, married on June 30, 1951.
After 10 years of marriage, they had a son, William Jr., who died 24 hours later. The actors later adopted two sons, Robert Daniels and Michael Daniels.
