“Boy Meets World” star's wife recalls affair with 'boring' actor amid open marriage: 'The sex was good,' she confessed in memoir

Kathleen PerriconeTue, May 19, 2026 at 10:41 PM UTC

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Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels
Credit: David Livingston/GettyKey Points -

Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels, who played Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World, recently opened up about their "open marriage."

Now, her extra-marital romance with a costar on the CBS soap opera Love of Life is being revealed.

Bartlett wrote about the man, a "boring" actor who was "kind and gentle," in her 2023 memoir.

After clarifying their "open marriage," Bonnie Bartlett's extra-marital romance can now be revealed — and even more shocking, she nearly left her husband for him.

In her 2023 memoir Middle of the Rainbow, the St. Elsewhere actress reflected on her life and career, including her longtime marriage to William Daniels, best known for playing Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World.

Bartlett writes about their early years as husband and wife, when they were both struggling actors in New York. She eventually scored a recurring role on the CBS soap opera Love of Life, a success that made Daniels envious, and at times, quite mean.

Bonnie Bartlett as Vanessa Raven on 'Love of Life' in 1955
Credit: CBS via Getty

"He turned his anger on me," recalled Bartlett, now 96. "This took the form of a string of verbal putdowns, and this was not fair."

After Daniels stormed out of a restaurant on their sixth wedding anniversary in 1957, "I began to look for a kinder and gentler man."

Bartlett found him on the set of Love of Life.

During her last year on the show, a male costar invited her to lunch. "I found him slightly boring," she admitted, "but then he said these words: 'I'm crazy about you.'"

Those four words launched an affair that lasted months, as Bartlett was both physically and emotionally aroused by the unnamed actor.

"The sex was good," she confessed in Middle of the Rainbow. When he remarked that she struggled to have an orgasm, she was touched "that he cared. After that, he made sure I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the stimulation before climax."

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The two met up once or twice a week, and not once was Bartlett concerned how her affair might affect Daniels. "I never felt guilty because I never felt tied to fidelity, and neither did Bill," she wrote. "And his anger and meanness when directed at me was debilitating."

'Middle of the Rainbow' by Bonnie Bartlett
Credit: BearManor Media

Unlike her husband, Bartlett's new partner "was so placid, so calm, so normal," she described. "I wondered if this is what marriage was really supposed to be like… I learned that I didn't need discord to have great sex." She became so enamored with her new love, "I began to consider marrying the man."

After speaking to her therapist, Bartlett did eventually ask Daniels to move out. He did, but returned an hour later with his suitcases and refused to leave. "This is my apartment," he shouted. "My books are here. My records are here. If you want to split, then you leave!"

Daniels looked so funny in that moment, Bartlett just laughed and went back to reading a book. "We never spoke of it again," she revealed. "During our almost 70 years together, Bill often speaks of our marriage as having been three or four marriages. This was the end of one of them. I said goodbye to my kinder and gentler man and Bill and I moved on together."

William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett in 1986
Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

As Bartlett recently revealed, she and Daniels — who are about to celebrate their 75th anniversary — "did go in different directions occasionally."

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One of those times for him happened a little more than a decade after her affair on the set of Love of Life. As she writes in her memoir, Bartlett was "devastated" when Daniels had an affair with a producer in the 1970s and that was the final straw. It was at that point, the actress realized she "could no longer tolerate any kind of open marriage."

Daniels, now 99, also committed himself to his wife, who he met when the two were students at Northwestern University in the late 1940s. "I wouldn't be with anyone else in my life," he gushed during a joint interview with Bartlett, "than this woman sitting next to me."

on Entertainment Weekly

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