Who Is Maitland Ward? Why Did She Ditch Her Acting Career For Adult Films?

Maitland Ward is the professional name of Ashley Maitland Welkos who is an actress and model. Making her debut with CBS’ soap opera ‘The Bold and The Beautiful’ (1994-1996), she rose to prominence after appearing in ‘Boy Meets World’ sitcom on ABC in the role of Rachel McGuire.

Maitland has several awards to her name, some of which include the Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Youth Actress in a Daytime Series for her role as Jessica Forrester in ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ in the year 1995. She was also nominated for Soap Opera Digest Awards’ Outstanding Female Newcomer in 1995 for the same series. So, why did she leave her acting career for adult films?

Maitland Ward’s Career

Maitland was still a junior in high school when she bagged her first acting role in ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’. Before this, she had guest-starred on ‘USA High’ and ‘Home Improvement Season 7’. After appearing in ‘Boy Meets World’ till 2000, she went on to do films like ‘Dish Dogs’ and ‘White Chicks’.

After her retirement from acting, she dived into cosplaying alongside making appearances at various comic conventions. Slave Princess Leia was her first cosplay after which she also cosplayed as Jessica 6 from ‘Logan’s Run’ and as Red Sonja. Ward has also made appearances at comic conventions wearing nothing but body paint.

Why Did Maitland Ward Begin Starring In Adult Films?

In an interview with Yahoo Life Maitland declared that she is unapologetic about everything in life and especially sex. She has chronicled her journey from the film industry to the world of pornography in her book ‘Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood’ where she talks about taking back control of her sexuality which will release on September 6, 2022.

Talking about her experience on TV sets, Ward said, “I was always looked at, in my view, as the more provocative one- people were fascinated by my long legs and that I am so tall and I have fiery red hair, and it was like it made that okay”. She went on to complain that the things she experienced back in her day won’t be acceptable today. Maitland further added that the most challenging aspect was the expectation of being sexualized by other people while not enjoying her sexuality. She recounted how she was told to appeal to male viewers while also being virginal and chaste.