Maitland Ward’s husband, Terry Baxter, championed her daring pivot into porn — and eventually encouraged her to film scenes with other men.
“He saw a truth in me that I wasn’t going to cross the boundary of … getting with guys, basically,” the author, 45, tells exclusively Page Six while promoting her new memoir, “Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood.”
Ward — who rose to fame as a teen soap star on “The Bold and the Beautiful” before playing Rachel McGuire on the Disney hit “Boy Meets World” — began sharing racy material years ago, posing in skimpy cosplay attire on social media and creating explicit content with other women.
“The girl stuff, I’ve had a lot of fun with girls. That wasn’t really a bother at all to [Baxter]. A lot of guys like that,” says the redheaded beauty, who was delightfully shocked then her spouse proposed the idea of performing with men.
“He saw that I had a lot of these fantasies.”
In 2019, Ward made her adult feature film debut in “Drive” — directed by esteemed porn veteran Kayden Kross — which featured a host of male entertainers. She has since worked with more, most recently in “Drift.”
The glossy five-part Vixen Media Group project, also helmed by Kross, sees Ward command authority while seducing the likes of X-rated actors Anton Harden and Alex Jones (no, not that one).
“[My husband] really was the one that came and, out of the blue to me, he said, ‘I see this in you. You really need to try this. You really wanna live out these fantasies,’” she says of his vital observation that ultimately gave her the green light.
After taking a beat, Ward offers, “I think it makes our relationship stronger.”
Baxter, 47 — a real estate agent in the Los Angeles area — used to help Ward capture content in the early days of her career transition. He was also by her side as she filmed her first hardcore sequence with a member of the opposite sex.
“At the end of it, the first one we did, nothing bad had happened. It was a controlled situation. I got to live out a fantasy, then it was done and we went back to our lives. So I really think that it solidified our trust in each other and also his faith in me,” she says, explaining how the experience only benefited their marriage.
“I felt really uplifted by that. It’s more of a connection there.”
Ward is grateful to Baxter for recognizing her need for free expression after escaping mainstream Hollywood, an industry she felt confined by.
“So many men especially, women too, are very jealous and want to keep their partner in a box. And he knows that I had been in a box for so long in Hollywood,” says the Long Beach, Calif., native, who grew tired of playing the good girl next door, only sexualized when convenient for male TV execs.
“[My husband] really saw that if he held me back from any of this, he would be the one now keeping me in a box. And he knew how much that bothered me and how hard that was for so many years for me,” Ward continues.
“I was finally emerging and I was having fun and I was successful, so he didn’t want to stop my trajectory. And I mean, hey, it went better than I could ever have imagined.”
The AVN Award winner says she is proud to be one of the highest paid women in porn today, equally revered for her on-camera talent as she is for her writing and producing capabilities.
“I just hope … my story helps de-stigmatize [sex work],” she says of the intention behind her “Rated X” tome, adding that enduring societal shame for porn and related professions is disappointing.
“It’s unfortunate that there are still stigmas attached. People always say that porn ruins people’s lives and that’s really not true because a lot of girls — and people — come into porn where it’s a safe haven for them,” she explains.
“If they feel other than or they feel they have to hide themselves sexually, they can find a place with people who are like them, who support them and they can live out their truth.”
Ward believes ignominy ushers porn stars into dark places, not the industry itself.
“They’re ostracized. The stigma, that’s really what tears people apart. I believe it gets them into heavy drugs or it drives them to terrible things like depression and suicide,” she says. “The bad things you hear about is because they’re so stigmatized in the public.”
Ward insists that the “freedom to be able to express ourselves sexually” on film — and its lucrative possibilities — outweighs any chastisement from the general public.
“These girls make so much money and they save up, a lot of them, for college, they buy houses. I know several porn stars who have made so much money and they invest in properties,” she notes. “More than anything, it’s empowering. I know it has been for me.”
“Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood” is in stores now.
