Rider Strong admitted he was “never close” with Boy Meets World costar Ben Savage before their ongoing estrangement.
“Ben refused to do the [rewatch] podcast [‘Pod Meets World’], but we still communicated with him, still on friendly terms, we thought. But he unfollowed us on Instagram and blocked our phone numbers,” Strong, 46, explained in the new documentary Doc Meets World. “I feel sorry that he’s missing out on the experience that Danielle [Fishel] and Will [Friedle] and I are having.”
The duo played best friends Shawn Hunter and Corey Matthews, respectively, for seven seasons of Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000, in addition to reuniting on Disney Channel spinoff Girl Meets World from 2014 to 2017.
Strong looked back on his relationship with Savage, 45, as part of the new film, revealing that while they weren’t best friends off-screen, the two costars did form a “mind meld as performers and trusted one another” on set.
Boy Meets World’s Danielle Fishel Denies Shading Former Costar Ben Savage
Savage initially remained friendly with Strong and his “Pod Meets World” cohosts Fishel and Friedle — who played Topanga Lawrence and Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World, respectively — after wrapping Girl Meets World.
Per the trio, Savage turned down an invitation to join them as the fourth “Pod Meets World” cohost. Strong relayed that Savage felt the rewatch podcast was not a “worthwhile creative endeavor or way to connect with fans.”
“I flat-out told him, ‘Wow, I’m really going to miss you doing this; I think you’re making a mistake. I really wish you would consider it,’” Strong explains in the documentary. “And he said, ‘I promise you it’s just not for me.’”
Savage allegedly ceased all communications with his former costars around 2020. In Doc Meets World, Friedle shares a text chain of unanswered messages to Savage that dates back several years and insinuates that his onscreen brother eventually blocked his number when he threatened to call him “every day” until they reconnected.
Friedle shared that he still texts Savage “at least once a month” with the “slight hope he’ll reach out one day.”
“I really do miss him. He’s arguably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Friedle tells Strong in the documentary.
Savage has never publicly explained why he cut off contact with his Boy Meets World costars.
Speaking exclusively to Us Weekly, the “Pod Meets World” hosts revealed that while Savage no longer speaks to them, he was always connected to Boy Meets World cocreator Michael Jacobs. (Doc Worlds Meets includes Strong accusing Jacobs, 71, of perpetuating an “abuse cycle” for his treatment of child actors on both the Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World sets.)
“[Michael and Ben have] always been very close,” Fishel, 45, told Us.
‘Boy Meets World’ Cast Feuds and Drama Through the Years
Strong concurred, “They’ve always been … creative partners. I mean, I think Michael saw himself in Ben, you know, and then was writing a lot of his own childhood through Ben, and they just had a great relationship.”
As for their future relationship with Savage, Friedle insisted to Us that he wanted to share his feelings about the estrangement “to [Savage’s] face” someday.
Neither Jacobs nor Savage has ever appeared on “Pod Meets World.” Both declined to be interviewed for Doc Meets World.
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