“Boy Meets World” Star Rider Strong Says He Feels Like He's 'Letting the World Down' by Aging
“Boy Meets World” Star Rider Strong Says He Feels Like He's 'Letting the World Down' by Aging
Catherine SantinoThu, May 14, 2026 at 6:33 PM UTC
0
Rider Strong.
Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty; Tibrina Hobson/Getty
-
Rider Strong said on his podcast Pod Meets World that he feels like he's "letting the world down" by aging
The Boy Meets World star said he feels "judged" for getting older
Strong hosts his podcast with former costars Will Friedle and Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong is opening up about feeling "shame" over his appearance.
On the Monday, May 11, episode of Pod Meets Worldpodcast, which he hosts with fellow Boy Meets World stars Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle, Strong, 46, said he experiences "a constant shame and fear about how I look, and feeling like I'm letting the world down."
During the episode, the trio discusses a season 7 episode of the sitcom titled "She's Having My Baby Back Ribs," in which Fishel and Friedle's real-life weight gain was made into a plot line.
"Regardless of body, people judge us for getting older," Strong said as the group commiserated about feeling scrutinized in the public eye. "Just having the gall to keep aging, and not be 13, or 15, or whatever we were in their mind when they knew us the best, and liked us, and connected with our characters, and I can't do anything about that."
Rider Strong in 1994.
Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty
The actor, who played Shawn Hunter on the series that ran from 1998 to 2000, continued, "Like I have to admit, I would rather be alive than not, so I'm not going to die young, so I'm going to keep getting older, and I'm going to keep disappointing everybody who's ever been a fan of teenage Rider Strong. Then there's always the backward compliment of: ‘Danielle looks so great, and she still looks so young!' And it's like: 'Oh yeah, that is true, but we're right next to her,' and like: 'Well, we just look our age, we just look like old dudes.'"
Rider Strong in 2026.
Credit: Anna Webber/Variety/Getty
Rider also recalled an interaction in which a friend told him, "'You know, the world really is upset at you for getting older.'""He's like: ‘How dare you!'" he added.
Advertisement
Speaking with PEOPLE at the iHeart Podcast Awards on March 16, Rider revealed one thing he'd love to see come back from the '90s.
“You know what I would love is, I think the whole notion of selling out was like a joke, you know, back then, like, you didn't want to sell out, and then of course now it's everyone sells out,” Strong told PEOPLE.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The actor added that he would like people to have "a little bit of shame about selling out."
“Just a little bit of shame,” he said. “Like, we could bring that back because I realized that the '90s were too extreme about that, but I also think that now we're too far in the other direction of just everybody's a commercial for everything."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
