The Teenage Romance That Almost Came Between Danica McKellar & Candace Cameron Bure

In the late 1980s to mid-1990s, we had no shortage of family-oriented sitcoms to choose from on a weeknight. You could sit down on the couch, turn on your television, and find Candace Cameron Bure in "Full House," Danica McKellar in "The Wonder Years," or blond heartthrob Jeremy Miller in "Growing Pains." Despite being on different programs, each had a cast of talented teens who crossed paths with one another in real life more than you might think.

In fact, D.J. Tanner (Bure) of "Full House" and Winnie Cooper (McKellar) of "The Wonder Years" are pretty close friends. The enduring friendship — a rarity for Hollywood — goes back years, and the friends have their respective television shows to thank for it. McKellar told Yahoo! that, as young actors, they were invited to a party along with other teen stars of the time hosted by a magazine. It was there that the two child stars first met.

However, their relationship could have gone very differently thanks to another young actor of the time — Jeremy Miller. "Growing Pains'" Ben Seaver (Miller) pulled a move from the playbook of his older brother Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) on the show: entertaining two girls at once.

In Season 2, Episode 13 of "Growing Pains," eldest brother Mike has three girls vying for his attention as he decides who to take to the dance. Fellow "Growing Pains" actor Jeremy Miller may have used this episode for inspiration when he decided: Why choose one girl when you could potentially have both? 

Danica McKellar explained how it all went down to Fox News: "So, in 1989, I believe it was, there was this party that a teen magazine was putting on and Jeremy Miller, who was also a young actor, he was at this party. I was there, and Candace [Cameron Bure] was there, and he asked me to be his girlfriend. And I was like, 'Yes!'" 

There was only one problem: Bure thought that she was dating Miller. Fortunately, it seems like Miller got away with the love triangle for a time. McKellar revealed that she and Bure didn't realize they were both in a relationship with Miller until they had a moment on "Dancing with the Stars" years in the future.

Had the women decided to fight for who got to date the fair-haired, dark-browed Miller at the time, their friendship could have been in jeopardy. However, McKellar noted — while also admonishing Miller for the scheme — that she's still close with Bure. "[It's] so silly. I mean, we were so young. We were like 13 years old. So, this was not any kind of serious relationship we're talking about," she said. "Luckily my friendship with Candace has survived just fine."

Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar are fortunate they didn't let a boy come between them, because now their friendship has stood the test of time. When they were young, the sitcom starlets even reunited for a TV movie "Camp Cucamonga" in 1990. 

After "The Wonder Years" ended, McKellar stepped back from acting while Bure went on to appear in a few TV movies. The women became close as adults when Hollywood brought them together once again for "Dancing with the Stars," which seemed to breathe new life into their friendship. Not long after, McKellar decided the Hallmark Network, Bure's home since 2008, was also the place for her and signed on.

Now that they were moving in the same circles again, the duo's friendship deepened. In 2022 on "The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast," McKellar gushed, "Candace, I don't want to brush over the huge, huge impact that you've had on my life this year. I don't even know how to call that, like, friendship. It's more than that." The women's bond is so strong that it may have prompted them to jump ship together, leaving Hallmark for the Great American Family network in late 2022.

The two celebrated the start of their new adventure with McKellar posting a selfie of them together, in which she repeatedly praised Bure and called her "good friend." And to think, their entire relationship could have been sabotaged by Jeremy Miller had their love triangle been exposed decades ago.