“I Was A Size 4”: “Boy Meets World” Star Danielle Fishel Just Recalled The Moment Producers Told Her That She’d Gained So Much Weight They Were Turning It Into A Storyline

In 2022, she and two of her former castmates, Rider Strong and Will Friedle, launched a rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, where they speak openly about their memories and personal experiences from working on the show.

For context, Rider was 14 years old when he was cast as Shawn Hunter, and Will was 17 when he landed the role of Eric Matthews. 

The trio have also exposed a dark side to child fame, with Danielle recounting being catfished by a grown man who pretended to be a young girl in order to establish a friendship with her, and sharing her experience of being “an object of desire at such a young age.”

Now 43, Danielle revealed that an adult male executive once told her that he kept a calendar that she shot as a minor in his bedroom, with others saying that they were counting down to her 18th birthday.

“Even directly to me, I had people tell me they had my 18th birthday on their calendar,” Danielle said at the time. “I had a male executive, I did a calendar at 16, and he specifically told me he had a certain calendar month in his bedroom.”

Will also recalled overhearing an adult man having an inappropriate conversation with Danielle when she was just 14 years old, and how he reported the incident to the show’s stage manager. The man in question was never seen on their set again.

“You know, you’ve packed on a few pounds, too, Eric,” Topanga exclaims. 

“They called me into the office to tell me they were going to do it; it wasn’t really like they asked,” she explained. “Will had gained some weight, I had gained some weight. [They said]: ‘Obviously you guys have gained a little bit of weight, so we’re going to write an episode about it, and we just wanted you to know. Here’s what it’s going to be, it’s going to be really funny.'”

Danielle said that, in the moment, Will acted OK with the situation, but she later learned that he found the whole thing “really painful and hurtful.” She also wasn’t happy with the storyline, but didn’t feel as though she could speak up. 

“The hardest part for me was that meeting,” she shared. “Because Will very much was like: ‘Oh, yeah, I'm totally up for it’ just immediately, which I know now he was very insecure, and it was really painful and hurtful for him.”

“But I didn't know that,” Danielle added. “And he was so funny, and such an amazing actor, and was so, like: ‘Yeah, sure, that's no problem, that's fine for me,’ and for me, it was more like: ‘Oh, wow…’ No one had said anything to me about it; I had been aware that I had gained weight, but I was still a size four!”

“And then that was just in my head forever, awful,” Danielle concluded. 

The star went on to reflect on the fact that many of her industry peers feel the same way about being in the public eye in the ‘90s. She shared: “Especially for the women, the ‘90s were a rough time, you know?”

“Every time I have a conversation with somebody, it is a weird, comforting feeling to know there isn't something wrong with me,” Danielle admitted. “That all of us who grew up around that same time [had] that same experience.”

“We all say the same things: ‘I have to reprogram myself, I still struggle with disordered thoughts about food and disordered thoughts about working out, and it has taken a lifetime just to get to a place where I feel like: OK, I have got a handle on it,’” Danielle explained. “And even still, the bad habits and the bad thoughts can creep up and I have to rein it back in.”

Will was absent from Monday’s podcast episode, so was unable to share his personal reaction to the storyline. However, he has previously spoken out about struggling with his weight during his time on Boy Meets World, and the negative impact that it had on him at the time.