William Daniels is best known for his role as Mr. Feeny on the beloved ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World.
His wife of 72 years, Bonnie Barlett, might be somewhat less well known to modern audiences due to the fact that her career peaked a bit earlier, but she was no less successful in her heyday.
Bartlett got her start on Little House on the Prairie before moving on to the medical drama St. Elsewhere, on which Daniels played her husband.
For years, Bartlett and Daniels were among the most admired acting couples in Hollywood.
The thespian lovebirds even won Emmys on the same night in 1986, becoming only the second couple to pull off that impressive feat.
But according to Bartlett’s new memoir, the marriage was not always as wholesome as it seemed.
And by that we mean, Mr. Feeny banged half of Manhattan in the ’50s.
While promoting her new memoir, Middle of the Rainbow, Bartlett revealed that in her first years with Daniels, he insisted on an open marriage.
“I guess it was a little bit of an open marriage at first, but that was very painful,” she told Fox News Digital while promoting her book.
“That didn’t work well. And it was a time when people were doing that,” Bonnie explained.
“It was at a time in New York when there was a lot of sex and a lot of people doing all kinds of things, you know – very free.”
Bartlett went on to say that while she and Daniels might have been briefly caught up in the spirit of the free love … ’50s (???) they eventually decided that the swinger life was not for them.
Both had affairs, but they abandoned the lifestyle in the 1970s.
“But I don’t know if there was a lack of commitment a little bit, and that’s not good,” Bonnie continued.
“So there was a lot of pain connected with any transgression, with any extramarital thing.”
Needless to day, Feeny doesn’t exactly come off looking like the wise old educator we know and love in this story.
But it’s important to focus on the wholesome aspects of this account:
For one thing, Daniels and Bartlett are both in their nineties, and not only did she just write a book that details their sex life, she’s been tirelessly making the media rounds to promote it.
Obviously, that’s awesome.
And hey, it’s kind of nice to think that before he was Corey Matthews’ lonely, cardigan-clad neighbor, Mr. Feeny was one of the most legendary players of the Eisenhower era.
Sounds like that boy not only met the world, he took it back to his apartment, made it a Martini and put on some Sinatra!