Will Friedle’s Racially Insensitive Remark to Trina McGee

In January 2020, Trina McGee (Angela) spoke out about disrespect she experienced on Boy Meets World, including being “called Aunt Jemima on set.”

Later, she revealed Will made the remark and that he apologized to her “22 years ago and again days ago in a in a three-page letter.”

“We talked more on it and he acknowledged that he really wasn’t educated enough in his early twenties to know he was truly offending me,” she wrote on Instagram in April 2020. “THIS SHOULD AND COULD BE A TEACHING MOMENT FOR ALL.”

Ultimately, Trina and Will moved forward.

“Will apologized to me and I forgave him, I then apologized to him for making the statements public because his joke came out of just not knowing, not viciousness and he forgave me,” she said. “That’s what friends do.”

As Will recalled on Pod Meets World in 2022, he saw Trina exit her dressing room in a “big red headscarf” and “attached no cultural significance to that whatsoever.”

Thinking he was teasing her like he did the rest of the cast, he continued, he decided to “make fun of her red hat.”

“That’s as far as my dumbass privileged mind saw it,” Will said. “So right before I walked on for my part, I walked by and went ‘love your syrup’ and walked onto the set thinking boom, zing, just got her for her hat.”

Trina told Will the joke wasn’t OK, and he was “mortified,” noting the moment changed his life.

“You can’t just throw things out there because you think it’s funny and walk away,” he said. “You could be hurting people.”