JamesG
01-09-2026, 12:15 AM
"Boy Meets World" Star Will Friedle Details How his "Life was Spiraling" during Show's Final Season
by Raechal Shewfelt
January 8, 2026
Hosting the latest episode of his "Boy Meets World" rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, was no easy feat for costar Will Friedle, because it required him to revisit "arguably the worst year of my life, just mental health-wise."
Friedle, who played Eric Matthews for all of the show's seven seasons, which aired from 1993 to 2000, told his former costars and fellow hosts, Rider Strong (Shawn) and Danielle Fishel (Topanga), that re-watching the seventh season's first episode, "Show Me the Love," was "very difficult."
"This was a tough watch for me all the way through, starting season 7," Friedle said. "And I know it'll get better, but starting watching this was rough for me. This was a tough year in my life."
Fishel asked him to explain it more for listeners.
"Starting the show, season 7, I was maybe six or eight weeks into anxiety, which I'd never experienced before in my life," Friedle said. "I still wasn't talking about it. I’d been on medication for maybe a month, which is why I put on so much weight. But my life was spiraling at this point. Badly."
He recalled one appointment with the show's hair stylist that did not go well.
Friedle said he "had a massive panic attack in the chair, which was happening every 10 minutes in my life at this point. It was just, it was awful. And so I'm still not talking about it [at the time], put a smile on my face, excused myself, and went to the bathroom, and essentially broke down in [the hair stylist's] bathroom."
The incident left him "considering climbing out the window" and wondering how he could ever film the show in that condition.
Strong said he had "no idea" his friend was dealing with any of this, even though most of his memories from backstage at the time were about the two of them.
"You were always Mr. Positive," he added. Friedle said that was by design.
"I still say it is the best acting I've ever done in my life is not letting people know that I was literally dying," he said, adding that "this was a heavily medicated both by a doctor and self-medicated-with-alcohol-year for me. That’s why I was putting on weight and just trying to get through my life at this point."
https://ew.com/how-boy-meets-world-star-will-friedle-struggled-during-final-season-11882099
by Raechal Shewfelt
January 8, 2026
Hosting the latest episode of his "Boy Meets World" rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, was no easy feat for costar Will Friedle, because it required him to revisit "arguably the worst year of my life, just mental health-wise."
Friedle, who played Eric Matthews for all of the show's seven seasons, which aired from 1993 to 2000, told his former costars and fellow hosts, Rider Strong (Shawn) and Danielle Fishel (Topanga), that re-watching the seventh season's first episode, "Show Me the Love," was "very difficult."
"This was a tough watch for me all the way through, starting season 7," Friedle said. "And I know it'll get better, but starting watching this was rough for me. This was a tough year in my life."
Fishel asked him to explain it more for listeners.
"Starting the show, season 7, I was maybe six or eight weeks into anxiety, which I'd never experienced before in my life," Friedle said. "I still wasn't talking about it. I’d been on medication for maybe a month, which is why I put on so much weight. But my life was spiraling at this point. Badly."
He recalled one appointment with the show's hair stylist that did not go well.
Friedle said he "had a massive panic attack in the chair, which was happening every 10 minutes in my life at this point. It was just, it was awful. And so I'm still not talking about it [at the time], put a smile on my face, excused myself, and went to the bathroom, and essentially broke down in [the hair stylist's] bathroom."
The incident left him "considering climbing out the window" and wondering how he could ever film the show in that condition.
Strong said he had "no idea" his friend was dealing with any of this, even though most of his memories from backstage at the time were about the two of them.
"You were always Mr. Positive," he added. Friedle said that was by design.
"I still say it is the best acting I've ever done in my life is not letting people know that I was literally dying," he said, adding that "this was a heavily medicated both by a doctor and self-medicated-with-alcohol-year for me. That’s why I was putting on weight and just trying to get through my life at this point."
https://ew.com/how-boy-meets-world-star-will-friedle-struggled-during-final-season-11882099