William & Bonnie Daniels Had to Overcome Mutual Infidelities for Their Once Open Marriage to Work | "Would Do Anything"

William Daniels, 95, and Bonnie Bartlett Daniels, 93, are still very much in love after spending over seven decades together. The Boy Meets World actor tied the knot with Bonnie way back in 1951. They admit that the journey has been far from easy but it has been worth it. The two overcame several obstacles in their relationship, that brought them closer. They struggled in the early years of their relationships due to their respective extramarital affairs. The St. Elsewhere star and her husband tried to make an open marriage work but realized it wasn't working out.

While promoting her new memoir Middle of the Rainbow, Bonnie Daniels admitted that the couple's affairs almost broke their marriage. They had to overcome adversity and mutual infidelities to make their marriage work. 

The actress claimed many people had entered open marriages at the time and they thought theirs would work that way too until it didn't.

According to Vanity Fair, in her new book, she admitted that “she never felt guilty” about the affairs she had “because I never felt tied to fidelity, and neither did Bill.” The two-time Emmy winner confesses to having “an affair that lasted a few months” with another actor in 1959 but her husband's affair with a New York-based producer in the early 1970s is what left her "devastated" and changed her outlook on their relationship.

In their first 10 years of marriage, if either had fallen in love with somebody, they wouldn't have worked out. She revealed that the reason they continued to persist was that they never felt this kind of love they had for each other with anyone else. She said, "We just like to be with each other. And we would do anything for each other."

Now the couple is very happy, she told PEOPLE adding that despite their affairs they only felt true love with each other. She said, "We sit in this house and we do things. He reads his New York Times, and he does Cameos mostly. And we do conventions and things like that." She even admitted that their move to Hollywood helped save the marriage. Once they got there they were "living like a normal family and having weekends at home with our kids and doing things, it was totally different story," she admitted. "Nobody wanted anything more than that."

Even when things were rough the couple had faith in each other and knew how fond they were of each other. "I was always the one that would say to Bill, 'I don't think I want to be married to you anymore'," she recalled. "And he'd say, 'Oh, come on. you're smitten with me. You've always been crazy about me'," she added. "Every time I've questioned the relationship, he doesn't take it seriously. He makes me laugh."

References:

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/01/bonnie-bartlett-daniels-boy-meets-world-actor-william-daniels-open-marriage-very-painful-memoir-middle-of-the-rainbow

https://people.com/tv/william-and-bonnie-daniels-on-sustaining-72-year-marriage/

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Frazer Harrison