'Boy Meets World' star Ben Savage allegedly 'ghosted' former co-stars: 'I wish I knew why'

"Boy Meets World" star Ben Savage is "wandering down this road that we call life" without his childhood friends, his former-co-stars say.

Savage, who starred as Cory Matthews on the ABC sitcom alongside Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle from 1993-2000, hasn't spoken to his castmates in three years, the actors claim in a Variety interview published Wednesday.

"He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day," Friedle told the outlet. "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.' "

Friedle, who portrayed Savage's TV brother Eric Matthews, said he spent about a month trying to get in contact with Savage, to no avail.

"I finally sent a text saying, 'I've known you for 30 years, what’s going on?' " Friedle said. "I said, 'I'm gonna call you every day until you tell me not to call you anymore.' "

USA TODAY has reached out to Savage's representative for comment.

Savage, who is running for a congressional seat in California’s 30th District in the House of Representatives, returned to his "Boy Meets World" roots for the reboot "Girl Meets World," which ran from 2014-2017. Fishel, who played Cory's love interest and eventual wife Topanga, also returned to the series in a co-starring role. Friedle and Strong made numerous guest appearances on the show.

Savage's co-stars said they remained close after "Girl Meets World" finished production, including cast appearances at fan conventions. However, Fishel said that when the idea for a rewatch podcast "Pod Meets World," which launched in June 2022, was proposed, Savage wasn't interested.

"He was very adamant that it was not for him," Fishel said. "He was also very clear, 'I don’t want it to stop you. If you guys want to do it, go ahead.' The time between those conversations and the time we actually started the podcast was a significant amount of time."

Fishel said that while she and Savage grew closer following the birth of her first child in 2019, Savage abruptly stopped participating in fan conventions and withdrew communication.

"He just kind of disappeared from our lives," Fishel said. "He ghosted us."

Fishel said she remains optimistic that this rough patch in their friendship is not "the end of our story."

"If there’s anything this podcast has taught me, it’s that everyone is on their own journey and having their own experiences that can be perceived many different ways, depending on your POV," Fishel said. "Ben and I may be estranged right now, and we may have our complaints about each other, but I will always love Ben and want what’s best for him."

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Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle discuss 'inappropriate' workplace situations while filming sitcom

Fishel, Strong and Friedle have done some major reflecting since reuniting for "Pod Meets World."

On the June 15 episode, Friedle said he witnessed "inappropriate" behavior on the set of "Girl Meets World," which cause him to to think about his own experience as a teenager on "Boy Meets World."

"I got to come in and occasionally look at the entire thing that was happening. You saw a lot of those traits, where it was, you’d walk in and somebody 13 or 14 would be sitting on somebody’s lap who’s 35. There’s nothing overtly sexual about it, but it’s still inappropriate," Friedle said of his times as a guest star.

He added that it's "completely on the adults" to call out the inappropriate behavior rather than relying on the teenage girls to speak up for themselves. "It’s on the man to go, 'No, no, no — I like you a lot but why don’t you sit over there and we’ll have a conversation. It’s just not appropriate.' You don’t seen that nearly as much as you should. It was very strange."

Friedle expanded on that in their Variety interview, saying that looking back to their time on "Boy Meets World," "Certain people counted on us not talking to each other. When it was revealed that we were talking to each other, the curtain was pulled away. When we started comparing notes, it wasn’t great."

"So, I’m very glad that I had very limited involvement with 'Girl,'" he added.

Fishel opened up about being sexualized as a teenager on the same episode, telling her co-hosts, "I had people tell me they had my 18th birthday on their calendar. 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."

“There’s a lot to be said for taking some normal work-place environment rules to Hollywood. Maybe, if this would never fly in any other professional environment, maybe some of those professional rules should apply on our sets," she told Variety. "Maybe the things that would happen in your accountant’s office where someone would then call HR and it would come to an end, maybe we should participate in those things here."

Fishel said she would occasionally call out behavior even though "it’s normal for what we do, but I don’t think it should be normal and I think we should stop this from happening."

Contributing: Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ben Savage's 'Boy Meets World' co-stars allege he 'ghosted' them