Forty-five year old former Boy Meets World star turned popular porn star Maitland Ward has found a really successful career since she left Hollywood. Next month, she’s releasing a book chronicling that entire journey, and as part of that process, she’s done a lot of reflecting on her life, the decisions she’s made and how she’s changed as she’s gotten older. One key change is how often she apologizes. When she was younger, she apparently apologized for “everything.” Now? She’s done apologizing.
The upcoming book is entitled Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood, and as part of the promo tour, she was recently interviewed by Yahoo. During the conversation, she reflected on how confusing it was for her trying to figure out her sexuality in Hollywood when she was constantly given mixed messages. She received a lot of attention on sets for her “long legs” and “fiery red hair.” Sometimes her character on Boy Meets World was even sexualized as part of the plot, like in an episode where she took a risque photo for her boyfriend, and it was passed around as a prank. But if she did anything like that in real life, she got in trouble.
If I ever wore anything like that, or did anything suggestive like that in real life, Disney and producers and Hollywood would've come down on me. Especially the producer, Michael Jacobs — he was very adamant about me being chaste and the good girl… It was just very confusing. It hindered my sexual exploration and finding out who I was for a very long time.
When she was younger and trying to make it work in Hollywood, Ward tried to navigate the above mixed messages and find the balance. She says it was “confusing” and hindered her finding out who she was for a long time. It also involved a lot of apologizing, but she’s done with that now. She is who she is, and she’s not worried about how it looks or what others might think. That's why she's done apologizing.
I'm unapologetic about sex…but I think it's me in my truth and everything. When I was young, I was so apologetic for so many years. I will never apologize anymore.
Maitland Ward began her transition from Hollywood actress to adult content creator after getting married in 2006. At first she ran things through Patreon, developing an extremely successful account, but she later branched out into professional shoots and now Only Fans. She says her husband is supportive, and her new career has really opened up their sex life.
You can grab a copy of Maitland Ward’s book Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood when it hits stores on September 6th. It’s currently available for preorder. You can also check out her former Boy Meets World co-stars, who she's friendly with, as they revisit the popular series in their new show Pod Meets World. Fans will likely see Ward as a guest down the line, but as it’s going in chronological order and she didn’t join the show until later, it may be awhile.
