It’s just “Boy Meets World”.
William Daniels, 99, and Bonnie Bartlett, 96, who celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary next month, have clarified previous statements about their “open marriage.”
“It’s funny how the press picks something up and makes it bigger than it was before,” she said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “We’ve never talked about what we’re going to do, but you two have been together for 75 years, and as you know, it would be unusual if you weren’t… attracted to other people from time to time.”
Ms. Bartlett added, “Yes, we both were on both sides at times,” which she wrote about in her 2023 memoir, “In the Middle of the Rainbow.”
The actress explained that she never discussed the arrangement with Daniels, known for his role as Mr. Feeney on the family sitcom Boy Meets World.
“Bill and I never sit down and make rules,” she said. “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 disturbed…We were never disturbed, but sometimes our lives went in different directions.”
The Little House on the Prairie alum previously revealed that the couple had an “open marriage” but it was “very painful” and “didn’t work out.”
“And that was a time when people were doing that,” she continued. “There was a lot of sex in New York at the time, and a lot of people were doing all kinds of things. It was very freeing.”
Bartlett confessed that around 1959, eight years after she married Daniels, she had an affair with the “slightly boring” actor that “lasted several months.”
Meanwhile, Daniels’ marriage to a producer fell apart in the 1970s, which left Bartlett “devastated” and she realized she “couldn’t stand any kind of open marriage anymore.”
Bartlett seemed a little shocked that the couple would be celebrating a milestone anniversary.
“You don’t plan for it, you really don’t plan for it,” she said. “I’m not a romantic or anything like that. I’m a big believer in today, you know? And then all of a sudden, 75 years have passed. I have to say, in a way, it’s amazing.”
Daniels seems as enamored with Bartlett as he was the day he first spied Bartlett at Northwestern.
“I’ll never be with anyone else in my life other than this woman sitting next to me,” he gushed.
During their marriage, the two played each other’s spouses in three different projects, including Boy Meets World and St. Elsewhere.
Ten years into their marriage, their son William Jr. was born and died 24 hours later. They adopted two sons.
