‘Boy Meets World’ William Daniels’ wife talks ‘painful’ past open marriage

Bonnie Bartlett Daniels, wife of William Daniels, detailed her painful experience of an open marriage in an interview with Fox News Digital.

The 93-year-old got candid about the ups and downs of her relationship with the Boy Meets World actor, 95, while promoting her new memoir, Middle of the Rainbow. Daniels was best known for his role as Mr Feeny in the show.

The couple had tied the knot back in 1951.

“I guess it was a little bit of an open marriage at first, but that was very painful,” she told the outlet. “That didn't work well. 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.”

Bonnie went on to reveal she had “an affair that lasted a few months” with an actor who was “slightly boring” sometime around 1959.

“I never felt guilty because I never felt tied to fidelity, and neither did Bill,” she wrote.

However, her husband’s affair with a producer in the ’70s left her “devastated” and completely changed the dynamic of their marriage. The actress shared, she realised at that time that she “could no longer tolerate any kind of open marriage” and the twosome moved “forward day-by-day” to repair their broken relationship.

“It was very painful for the both of us,” she told the outlet. “But it was something we had to go through because we never went through it. When we got together I was 18. Bill was my first boyfriend … We just had to go through all that and still, we loved each other very much and always have.”

She further added that the couple have “always been there for each other.”

She said, “That’s what matters — if you’re there for the person and help [them] along in a relationship, [have] respect for them and what they’re doing and being there for them… [You have to] be together on the other side.”