Will Friedle is keeping the door wide open for reconciliation, publicly declaring he hasn't given up on his former best friend and co-star Ben Savage. It's a masterclass in graciousness — here's a guy who's been ghosted without explanation for nearly three years, yet still speaks with nothing but love about the man who abandoned him.
Sources close to the situation say Friedle's public comments mask deep hurt that hasn't healed since 2023. 'He really thought they'd be friends forever,' one insider told us. Meanwhile, Savage has been too busy failing upward in politics to return a single call — his congressional campaign cratered just like his city council run did.
In September 2023, Friedle told Variety: 'He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day. We didn't have a fight. There's no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided "I don't want this person in my life anymore."' Savage lost both his 2022 West Hollywood City Council bid and his 2024 run for California's 30th Congressional District.
Ben Savage built a career playing America's favorite big brother — yet he apparently couldn't bother to make one phone call before cutting his real family out of his life. Three years later, Will Friedle is still waiting by that phone. At some point, you have to wonder if the ghosting IS the answer.
Will Friedle is refusing to close the door on his fractured friendship with Ben Savage — even though his former "Boy Meets World" co-star hasn't answered a single call in nearly three years. The actor, who played Eric Matthews alongside Savage's Cory through all seven seasons of the beloved ABC sitcom from 1993 to 2000, opened up to People about still holding out hope for reconciliation. "I know I'm shouting into the void, but I'm going to keep doing it," Friedle said.
"I haven't given up on my friend. I'm hoping that he comes back into our lives at some point, and when he does, we're going to have a lot to talk about." The 49-year-old admitted he still has the urge "to pick up the phone" and reconnect with his former onscreen brother — but Savage remains radio silent. The ghosting dates back to September 2023, when Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong revealed during a Variety interview that Savage had vanished from their lives without so much as a goodbye.
"He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day," Friedle told the outlet at the time. "We didn't have a fight. There's no falling out.
There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided 'I don't want this person in my life anymore.'" Fishel echoed that sentiment, saying simply: "He ghosted us." The trio had originally planned for Savage to co-host their rewatch podcast "Pod Meets World," which launched in 2022, but he ultimately stepped away from the project before it premiered. Fishel, who portrayed Topanga Lawrence opposite Savage's Cory throughout the series' run, expressed her own complicated feelings about being shut out.
The 45-year-old actress told People she's reached "a place of immense understanding and grace" regarding Savage's desire to not look back at their time together — but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting. "I love imagining him in this new chapter of his life as a dad," she said, noting Savage welcomed a baby girl with his wife. "I'm sad I can't be a part of those milestones." She added: "Not everybody wants to talk about uncomfortable truths." The estrangement has become particularly painful during recording sessions for the podcast, which has given Friedle, Fishel, and Strong a platform to relive their shared history — minus one crucial cast member.
"It's been hard," Friedle admitted. "Just today, literally, we were recording an episode this morning of 'Pod Meets World' and there came a question that we all wanted to know, that we know if Ben had been on with us, it would have been answered like that and we would have heard a great story." Since cutting ties with his former co-stars, Savage has pivoted to an entirely different arena: politics.
He ran for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council in 2022 and then launched a campaign as a Democrat for California's 30th Congressional District in 2024 — both of which ended in defeat. Meanwhile, William Daniels, who portrayed beloved mentor George Feeny on "Boy Meets World," recently told Page Six that there were "problems" among the cast and crew during the show's run. His wife Bonnie Bartlett noted it's "very unusual" for child actors to "grow up" on camera and then continue working together — though she credited the young performers with handling it remarkably well.
