Tragic Details About Maitland Ward

Maitland Ward has made a dramatic transformation from frothy soap opera ingénue and Disney teen princess to scintillating adult entertainment powerhouse. An only child growing up modestly in Long Beach, California, Ward traded suburban isolation for the Hollywood spotlight, only to find herself at the mercy of fickle show business fancies. When Tinseltown stopped knocking on her door, she engineered her own entry into the world of adult content creation, becoming an internet sensation and an award-winning porn actor to boot.

But behind her sex-positive and empowering work in adult entertainment lurk some seriously woeful tales. Ward's path to porn stardom hasn't been easy, and she's faced both personal and professional obstacles. Even a celebrity like Ward, who has successfully forged her own creative destiny, has had to overcome major adversity. Let's take a closer look at the tragic details about Maitland Ward's life.

Maitland Ward has been in show business for decades, but her career, and even her life, almost didn't exist. In her memoir, "Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood," Ward reveals that she almost died at birth. Because her mother had a history of miscarriages, the prognosis that she would carry Maitland to term was grim. Her mom anticipated a pregnancy loss and doctors were amazed that her fetus maintained a heartbeat. Despite almost insurmountable odds, Ward's mother gave birth to a healthy, boisterous baby girl in 1977. Regarding her miraculous birth, the author wrote, "I was over eight pounds and screamed the moment I breathed air."

Ward's harrowing birth journey impacted her family's attitude toward her. She explained that because she nearly died, her family treated her as though she was weak and needed protection. She internalized this narrative, thinking her traumatic birth bonded her with her mother. Ward lived in the grips of these limiting beliefs for years and says it was only as an adult that she gained an empowered sense of self separate from her birth story.

As assured and confident as Maitland Ward is as an actor and entertainer, her childhood was fraught with self-doubt, and she struggled to accept herself. Like many kids, Ward escaped her personal predicaments with television, writing in "Rated X" that she fantasized about "Knight Rider" and idolized the girls on "Beverly Hills, 90210." She began taking acting classes as a 10-year-old as a way to access difficult emotions, shake off expectations of perfection, and inhabit a different person's life. Ward wrote, "...these classes were more than an artistic outlet; they were therapy for a girl who was shy and quiet but who also desperately wanted to scream and be heard."

While Ward found a creative outlet on the stage, at home she contended with her negative body image. Growing up in a religious and conservative household made her feel ashamed and guilty about her developing body. Ward's grandmother instilled fear in her about sexuality during her physical and hormonal changes of puberty. The actor thought she could suppress her developing breasts and place heavy objects atop her head to stop herself from growing.

The star explained to Yahoo! Life, "I was a normal teenager when I started out, and I was discovering sex and attraction, and doing very normal, kind of innocent teenager things that are just part of growing up." For Ward, adolescence was a battle between the suppressive sexual orthodoxy of her family and her need to explore her own bodily desires. 

Maitland Ward made her acting debut as Jessica Forrester on the long-running CBS soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful," and behind-the-scenes drama between her and co-star Dylan Neal was just as turbulent as that of their fictional counterparts. In "Rated X," Ward shares that she met Neal during their audition, where they had chemistry from the start. According to Ward, the then 24-year-old Neal deemed himself too old to be interested in an off-screen tryst with her, but the pair soon developed a close friendship. Even Ward's parents saw Neal as a trusted companion for her as she navigated her way through treacherous Hollywood.

As their "B&B" tenure continued, however, Ward and Neal's friendship evolved into something more complicated. Despite Neal's long-term relationship with another woman, his and Ward's interactions became peppered with sexual innuendo. She changed her wardrobe and styling to align with Neal's tastes, and he became a constant on-set presence, even on his days off. Ward recalls in "Rated X" that during an interview with a soap opera publication, Neal answered questions for her, leaving the interviewer to disturbingly quip, "It's like he thinks he controls your mind and your thoughts." 

Ward reflected not-too-fondly on her relationship with Neal to Page Six, saying, "Looking back now, it was kind of a grooming situation." She explained that Neal operated between admiration for her and reproof, adding, "I think he just liked [for] him to be the hero figure to me, and he really got off on that."

Like many Hollywood actors, Maitland Ward has faced scrutiny about her body. During her time on "The Bold and the Beautiful," Ward experienced several instances of shameful and humiliating feedback about her weight. Ward writes in "Rated X" that during a wardrobe fitting, the stylist told her "You've gotten a little fuller. ... Just try and work out a little." Ward left their encounter feeling humiliated. Ward also points to her weight as a possible cause for her "B&B" dismissal. She recalled, "I should've seen the firing coming when a piece of cake was physically pulled away from me at the last anniversary celebration."

In addition to feedback from the soap opera crew, Ward remembers her co-stars ridiculing her weight. Her on-screen love interest Dylan Neal made hurtful comments about picking her up, leading her to be self-conscious. These experiences left a lasting impression on Ward. While she has embraced her curvy voluptuousness in her career in the adult entertainment industry, Ward recognizes how her experiences still impact her, writing, "Some part of me, ever since my time on 'The Bold and the Beautiful' when I was alerted to my weight, has believed that if I am thin, I am good. And this belief system in Hollywood is constantly being reinforced."

Even before Maitland Ward started filming "Boy Meets World," she was inadvertently pitted against her co-star Danielle Fishel. In "Rated X," Ward remembers "Boy Meets World" executive producer Michael Jacobs warned her that while her male co-stars would love her, the same wouldn't be true for the show's female lead. "Danielle Fishel will absolutely hate you," Jacobs told Ward. She asked why that was. Jacobs answered with a laugh, "Because you have red hair and legs." Although she felt isolated from her female "Boy Meets World" co-stars, Ward and Fishel got along just fine. But Ward notes that Jacobs' initial caution left lingering doubts about Fishel's true nature.

Ward and Fishel remained friendly after "Boy Meets World" ended in 2000, with Fishel even attending Ward's wedding. However, Ward says their relationship soured during the show's sequel series "Girl Meets World." Ward wrote that during the show's pilot taping, Fishel oddly ignored her, suggesting the reason was that Fishel didn't want to share screen time with her former cast members. Ward often shared photos from her time on set, but not with Fishel.

When asked by TMZ about her relationship with Fishel, Ward says she's not sure why Fishel doesn't like her, but she thinks it has to do with possible discomfort with Ward's work in adult entertainment. "It's just a weird kind of thing and I wish that we could be friends. And I don't know the full reasons behind it," Ward told Us Weekly. Fishel has not yet commented.

While Maitland Ward is a formidable talent in the porn world, not all of her experiences making sexually suggestive content have left her feeling empowered. Although it was a family show, later seasons of "Boy Meets World" sprinkled in light sexual innuendos mild enough for the T.G.I.F crowd. Ward's character, Rachel McGuire, appeared in the show's final two seasons as Eric (Will Friedle) and Jack's (Matthew Lawrence) fun and attractive roommate. Rachel brought sex appeal to the show, with Ward noting in "Rated X" that her character's motivation was often: "If you can't nag them to death, hypnotize them while half-naked into doing what you want."

Playing Rachel brought Ward plenty of exhilarating sex-tinged attention, but it's how "Boy Meets World" went about it that ultimately left her uncomfortable. In "Rated X," Ward shares that she was called to try on lingerie for "Boy Meets World" producers on multiple occasions. She told Us Weekly, "I was more nervous when I was trying on the lingerie that I wasn't sexy enough or I wasn't good enough or my body wasn't good enough or I just wasn't good." Further, she wrote in her memoir, "What bothered me was that I could never get past the feeling that the writers were having fun at my expense and devaluing me — like I was a punchline to a joke I would never be privy to."

Since 2006, Maitland Ward has been a trailblazer in the world of adult entertainment. According to Vanity Fair, Ward became Patreon's number one adult creator and swiftly moved into starring in professional porn. As an exclusive contract star with Vixen Media Group, Ward has won numerous awards, including the AVN Award for best supporting actress in 2020. She's even made a return to mainstream TV, filming a pilot for the porn industry-set comedy "The Big Time." Ward credits her unique path of success to living her truth, telling Yahoo! Life, "It's scary to forge your own path, but it's the only way that you're going to be happy."

Clearly, Ward's career is hotter than ever, but not all the attention she's received has been positive. In 2020, Ward was sued by a reality TV and adult entertainment actor and a videographer/editor for unpaid fees. TMZ reported that Ward owed both parties over $270,000 for a work deal they cut with her. Ward denied the allegations, telling the outlet that the lawsuit from her longtime friends was "complete slander and immoral," adding that it is "a joke and warning to all porn stars to be careful who you shoot with on the outside."

Having co-starred on Touchstone Television-produced family sitcom "Boy Meets World," Maitland Ward has been described as a Disney princess. Posing at Disneyland wearing Mouse Ears in 2020, she even wrote on Facebook, "Always a Disney Girl!!" No, she might not have her own theme park attraction at a Disney Theme Park, but Ward is one of many wholesome young starlets to find boob tube fame within the fabled Mouse House. Her transition into a sexier kind of stardom was met with plenty of naysayers.

Ward recalls in "Rated X" that her agent said of her sexy cosplay, "It's disgusting and not what an actress with credits should be doing out there," and her publicist told her, "Nobody wants to see you be sexy in Hollywood." But it turns out, plenty of people want to see Ward be sexy, so much so that she makes more money as an adult content creator than she ever did in mainstream Hollywood (via The Daily Beast).

It's safe to say that Maitland Ward is a social media maven. With over 1 million followers on Instagram, half a million Twitter followers, and a robust fan community on OnlyFans and Patreon, Ward is Extremely Online. Although she has cultivated a dedicated audience of "Wardiors" for her sex-positive content, not everyone is liking and subscribing to Ward's X-rated fair. In fact, some of her former mainstream Hollywood co-stars have outright unfollowed her. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Ward says her vocally anti-porn "White Chicks" co-star Terry Crews quickly unfollowed her on Twitter after her initial foray into adult entertainment. Her fellow "Dish Dogs" actor Matthew Lillard also reportedly ditched his friendship with Ward after he found out about her porn career.

Ward laments the loss of these friendships in The Daily Beast, writing, "It's so disheartening to me that grown, intelligent men can't feel comfortable enough in their own skin to be friends with a sex worker." However, not all of Ward's Hollywood connections have been quick to drop her. She notes in The Daily Beast that her "Boy Meets World" co-stars have neither publicly supported nor decried her adult entertainment work, but she had a positive public encounter with Will Friedle at a comic con around the time of her porn breakthrough in the movie "Drive." She also shared with TMZ that girls she's known previously have given her positive feedback to keep going with her work.

Maitland Ward has a refreshingly empowering and candid take on Hollywood stardom. After her stints on "B&B" and "Boy Meets World," Ward co-starred in the raucous 2004 comedy "White Chicks." But her role in the high-profile Hollywood movie didn't launch her into movie stardom and soon after, her acting career petered out. She told The Daily Beast she fought against her "Boy Meets World" typecasting, sharing, "I didn't want to play a Disney mom." But where else is a grown-up Disney princess supposed to go? In "Rated X," Ward divulges her most-feared acting destiny, writing, "I could imagine no worse fate than a Hallmark Christmas movie."

Ward wanted a career with more spice than any mulled cider served up by a small-town Hallmark Channel hunk could offer, and in her transition into adult content creation, she's found a creative outlet that far surpasses her Tinseltown experience. Ward writes frankly in "Rated X," "Hollywood was my toxic relationship." 

Making a move into adult entertainment has given her the confidence and creative control that is, for a female in entertainment, unmatched in Hollywood. Reflecting on her journey, Ward wrote in her memoir, "Porn doesn't have to ruin you; porn can save you. And in many ways, it saved me."