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Going on Dancing with the Stars was a big step for Danielle Fishel. Of course, we’re not just talking about the many she would take during her deep run on the last season of the hit ABC reality series. The Boy Meets World star not only entered worlds completely unfamiliar to her in both ballroom dance and reality TV, it also put her back in the spotlight after years away.
“Dancing with the Stars was the first on-camera job I had done in a long time, almost a decade, and I was nervous,” the actress tells Parade in an exclusive interview. “I didn’t know if I was going to enjoy it, and I just loved it. And the way my fans and the people who’ve always been there for me showed up to support me, I’ll never forget. It was week after week, seeing the comments and reading the Reddit posts, getting the emails, everyone was so supportive. So I’m really lucky.”
Danielle Fishel poses with Lysol Lavender & Cotton Blossom productsCourtesy
(Courtesy)
Despite being eliminated in eighth place alongside Pasha Pashkov, Fishel still has DWTS close to her heart. Most recently, she served as a special guest co-host on the 2026 tour (an engagement she’ll be returning to from April 9 to 12). And it’s the aspect of sharing a living space with so many people that has the actress partnering with Lysol Lavender and Cotton Blossom scented products, which both kill 99.9% of germs and provide a refreshing fragrance to help set the stage both at home and on the road.
“The Dancing with the Stars Live Tour really showed me how my cleaning needed to evolve now that I had a very small little space,” the 44-year-old says. “The spaces that I was using, the kitchen and the bathroom, were now shared spaces. So Lysol was a constant companion on the road.”
Fishel humorously cites pro Daniella Karagach as the messiest on tour, due to her cooking skills. As she puts it, “She would make me breakfast every morning. And I felt like if Dani was going to make me breakfast, I was going to clean up. So I was the cleaner. Dani made me breakfast, and I always cleaned up.”
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If that symbiotic relationship is not clear, the intimate and intense environment of DWTS creates a clear family dynamic. When Parade spoke with Season 34 winner Robert Irwin, he said Fishel was the cast member he got the closest with, and that she had given him a lot of sage wisdom to navigate the world after the show.
“Danielle is just an absolute light,” the 22-year-old said. “She’s just absolute sunshine whenever she walks into any room. And she was really there to give so much advice to me and to so many other people. She has Irwin vibes. She feels like she’s just one of us.”
Danielle Fishel uses Lysol Lavender and Cotton Blossom scented productsCourtesy of Lysol
(Courtesy of Lysol)
When asked about the close bond they had created last fall, Fishel replies, “Robert and I have a very special friendship. We’ve been in communication many times since the end of the season. He and his mother so generously invited me and my whole family to come and visit them at the Australia Zoo. We’re now in the process of trying to find a time to make that trip happen.”
“He is such a special man,” she continues. “And I told him, ‘If my children grow up to even be half as amazing as you are, I will feel like I have more than succeeded.’ He’s just so kind and sweet and funny and smart and cares about the people around him. He is the biggest green flag you’ve ever seen.”
Considering how life-changing Dancing with the Stars was for Fishel, it’s only appropriate Parade ask her about crossover from another life-changing project: Boy Meets World. Which of her former cast members does she feel should come back to primetime on ABC to follow in her footsteps on the dance floor?
“I do really think Will Friedle should do Dancing with the Stars,” she answers. “Mostly because he swears he cannot dance at all. He’s like, ‘I’m a terrible dancer,’ and I think that makes for the best television. And I think he has no idea how good these pros are and what they’d be able to get out of him.”
To clarify, despite the playful dynamic between the two, who currently host the retrospective podcast “Pod Meets World” alongside fellow BMW actor Rider Strong, her choice of Friedle is not to watch him flounder doing a fotrot on national television. Rather, she wants to give the chance for the 49-year-old to surprise people — including himself.
“I think his trajectory of where he would start to where he would finish would be so inspiring,” she says. “I think they could make him a decent dancer. From where he’s gonna start to where he’s gonna end is gonna be quite a difference. I would really love to see him on the show.”
Related: Danielle Fishel Drops Bold New Post-‘DWTS’ Project — ‘I Am the New Ryan Seacrest’
This story was originally published by Parade on Mar 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the TV section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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