Boy Meets World’s William Daniels, 99, celebrates milestone anniversary with wife
William Daniels and his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, are celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary.
The Boy Meets World star, 99, who tied the knot with Bartlett, 97, June 30, 1951, celebrated the milestone moment Tuesday on X, writing: “Happy 75th Anniversary to my wife Bonnie. It doesn’t even seem that long it just seems like this is my life. And it’s with each other. How lucky am I?”
He also shared a photo of Bartlett standing over him, her hands resting on his chest as he sat in a chair.
Daniels is best known for playing the stern yet compassionate Mr. Feeny in the seminal classic sitcom Boy Meets World. He also starred as Dr. Mark Craig in the Eighties medical drama St. Elsewhere and appeared in the 1980 romance drama film The Blue Lagoon and 1967 rom-com The Graduate.
Bartlett, also an actor, starred in several of the same projects as her husband, including Boy Meets World, St. Elsewhere and Touched by an Angel. The pair played on-screen spouses in all three.
The longtime couple first met in 1948 as students at Northwestern University, where they both studied drama and acting. They welcomed their first child, William Jr., in 1961, but he tragically died just 24 hours after his birth. They later adopted their two sons, Michael and Robert.
Bartlett previously opened up about their once “open marriage” in her 2023 memoir Middle of the Rainbow. The pair later discussed their non-traditional marriage, telling the Daily Mail in May that they never had set “rules.”
“It’s funny, the press will pick up on something and make more of it than it was,” Bartlett said.
“There was never any discussion as to what we were going to do, but in 75 years, the two of you together, you know, it would be abnormal if you… weren’t attracted occasionally to other people.
“So there have been times, yeah, both of us, on both sides, and that is in the book. It was non-spoken,” she added.
“Bill and I never sit down and make rules. We never sit down and talk about these things. We just don’t. We just live our lives. And if he’s away for a year, he’s away for a year.”
Bartlett noted: “Our lives just went on, but we never got unhinged… We never got unhinged, but our lives did go in different directions occasionally.”
Reflecting on 75 years of marriage, Daniels said: “I wouldn’t be with anyone else in my life than this woman sitting next to me.”
