Rocco Interviews Maitland Ward

Maitland Ward is an American pornographic actress, model, and former television actress. She played Rachel McGuire on the sitcom Boy Meets World and Jessica Forrester on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. In 2019, she transitioned from mainstream acting to performing in pornographic films.

Beginning in mid-2013, Ward began posting nude and topless photographs of herself on Snapchat and Instagram, gaining a large following on both sites. In April 2016, she posted her first nude pictures to social media of her being body painted for Luciano Paesani for a Los Angeles exhibition called "Living Art". In 2019, she announced on Instagram that she would be performing in a pornographic film entitled Drive, a move that some in the media referred to as a "drastic career shift". Maitland received support from former Boy Meets World co-star Trina McGee.

In May 2019, Ward signed with adult talent agency Society 15. She stated that she had been approached by porn director Kayden Kross and was "just floored" by the proposition of doing porn. She decided that the move felt natural to her, saying "It's been an evolution. It's all been my authentic journey because everything that I have done along the way is something I wanted to explore and do. I just did it publicly for my fans, that is the exhibitionist style of me.” Drive was released online at the website Deeper.com on September 30, 2019.

Of her decision, Ward stated that she feared being typecast and believed that by becoming a porn star, new fans would have an opportunity to discover her. Upon Drive's release, Ward promised "more taboo stuff to come", and she subsequently appeared in multiple additional porn scenes released on Deeper.com. She has said that she did not believe in any stigma related to being a porn star. Conversely, she claimed that she regards her transition into pornography as a savvy business move.