Boy Meets World legend William Daniels and his longtime wife Bonnie Bartlett are finally clearing the air about one of the most surprising chapters in their decades-long love story.
Daniels, 99, and Bartlett, 96, are preparing to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary next month, a milestone most Hollywood couples never come close to reaching. But now, Bartlett is speaking out after past comments about the couple’s so-called “open marriage” sparked a frenzy.
The Emmy-winning actress told the Daily Mail that the headlines made the arrangement sound far more dramatic than it actually was.
“It’s funny, the press will pick up on something and make more of it than it was,” Bartlett said, explaining that she and Daniels never sat down and created any formal “rules” about their marriage.
According to Bartlett, the two simply lived through the ups and downs of a very long relationship, especially during the wild world of New York show business.
“There was never any discussion as to what we were going to do,” she said. “But in 75 years, the two of you together, you know, it would be abnormal if you weren’t attracted occasionally to other people.”
Bartlett admitted there were moments when both she and Daniels became involved with other people during their marriage.
“There have been times, yeah, both of us, on both sides,” she said.
The Little House on the Prairie actress also wrote about the painful subject in her 2023 memoir, Middle of the Rainbow, where she revealed the couple once had what she described as an “open marriage.”
But Bartlett made it clear the arrangement was not some glamorous Hollywood fantasy.
In fact, she previously said it was “very painful” and “didn’t work well.”
The actress confessed she had an affair around 1959, eight years after marrying Daniels. She described the man as a “slightly boring” actor, and said the relationship only lasted a few months.
Daniels also stepped outside the marriage in the 1970s with a producer, a betrayal that Bartlett said left her devastated.
That moment changed everything.
Bartlett said she eventually realized she “could no longer tolerate any kind of open marriage.”
Still, despite the heartbreak, the couple never fully broke apart. Instead, they somehow managed to survive decades of fame, temptation, grief, and career pressures that would have destroyed many marriages.
“Bill and I never sit down and make rules,” Bartlett said. “We never sit down and talk about these things. We just don’t. We just live our lives.”
She added that their careers sometimes pulled them in different directions for long periods of time.
“If he’s away for a year, he’s away for a year,” she said. “Our lives just went on, but we never got unhinged.”
Bartlett said their early years together unfolded during a much freer era, when attitudes about relationships and sex were changing rapidly.
“It was a time when people were doing that,” she explained. “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.”
But after all these years, the couple is still together, still smiling in photos, and still beloved by fans who know Daniels best as the wise and warm Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World.
The two even played husband and wife on screen multiple times, including in Boy Meets World and St. Elsewhere.
Bartlett admitted she is surprised by just how long their marriage has lasted.
“You don’t plan for it. You really don’t plan for it,” she said. “I’m not at all romantic or anything like that. I’m a big believer in today, you know? And then all of a sudden it’s 75 years. It’s kind of amazing, I must say.”
Daniels, for his part, still sounds completely devoted to the woman he met all those years ago at Northwestern University.
“I wouldn’t be with anyone else in my life than this woman sitting next to me,” he said.
Their marriage has also endured deep personal tragedy. Ten years after tying the knot, the couple welcomed a son, William Jr., who died just 24 hours after his birth. They later adopted two sons.
After 75 years, Bartlett and Daniels’ love story may not be neat, simple, or picture-perfect. But it is one of the rare Hollywood marriages that lasted through scandal, sorrow, fame, and time itself.
