Rachael Leigh Cook has shared a rare glimpse into her teenage romance with Rider Strong.
Chatting with Strong’s Boy Meets World costar, Danielle Fishel, on the Wednesday, March 18, episode of the“Teenbeat” podcast, Cook, 46, reflected on their ‘90s relationship.
The She’s All That star revealed that Strong was “romantic” and “so deep” during their time together, and admitted that in hindsight she “didn’t understand him” in addition to Fishel did.
“Rider’s essentially the most poetic soul,” Cook said. “I remember this moment he had like, come to go to me in Italy, and there was this, like, field of sunflowers on the method to where we’re going.”
Cook explained that Strong, 46, selected the spur of the moment to inform the driving force to make a pitstop so the couple could run through the sunflowers together.
“He tells the driving force, ‘Stop the automobile.’ And he looks at me and I’m like, ‘Oh no, what are we doing?’” Cook recalled. “We now have to run into these flowers, like, really, spikey-looking flowers, like a movie.”
The actress noted that the experience made her realize that their personalities weren’t necessarily aligned enough for the connection to be sustainable.
“I knew in that moment, like, I’m not, I’m not the person, what he’s ultimately gonna need,” she said. “And I attempted, we got slightly way into that field, and I used to be similar to, ‘I don’t find out about this.’”
Danielle Fishel. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
The Josie and the Pussycat Dolls star also shared one among Strong’s past confessions to her.
“I remember one time he said to me, like, ‘In the event you weren’t with me, you understand, who would you desire to be with?” Cook recalled, explaining that she had responded with the name of her ex-boyfriend.
Cook then told Fishel, 44, that when she asked Strong the identical query, he answered, “Danielle.”
Fishel has previously been candid about her crush on Strong while they acted together on Boy Meets World – which took place in the course of the same time period that Strong was dating Cook.
Fishel first revealed her former feelings for her costar during an August 2022 episode of their podcast “Pod Meets World.”
“He was so smart, and … one among my favorite things about Rider — and it continues to this present day — [is that] Rider could be very effusive,” she said of what initially drew her to Strong.. “He’ll inform you how he feels and he’s very free together with his compliments, but he doesn’t throw them out willy-nilly. When he compliments you, it’s thoughtful, it has meaning, and you’ll be able to tell it’s coming from a really real place.”
In an October 2023 episode of the podcast, Fishel read a passage from her teenage diary written within the ’90s, which detailed her jealousy over Cook and Strong’s relationship.
“Then we went to acting class but we had to attend for Rachael,” Fishel recounted, declaring that the word “Rachael” was underlined in annoyance. “Then Rider and Rachael got all lovey-dovey, and it made me need to puke. Then they kissed, and it looked so cute. She’s actually really sweet and funky, but I actually like Rider. I don’t think she’s right for him. Nevertheless, possibly I’m not either.”