‘Wheel of Fortune’: Vanna White on Pat Sajak’s Moods, Ryan Seacrest’s Texts & More
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Longtime letter-turner Vanna White appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark on Thursday, October 26, where she opened up about her 40-plus years on the beloved game show and the upcoming retirement of her co-host, Pat Sajak.
With this being her final season with Sajak, White admitted it’s difficult to think about continuing the show without him. “I can’t think about it,” she said, almost getting choked up. “After 41 years together? It’s hard.”
White said she and Sajak haven’t yet discussed how they’ll mark his final episode; she just knows it will be an emotional send-off.
“I mean, you guys are married and everything, you know how this works,” White told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. “We’ve been together for so long when he walks up the stairs; I can tell what kind of a mood he’s in.”
We prepared @TheVannaWhite for @RyanSeacrest‘s notoriously bad spelling #WheelOfFortune pic.twitter.com/1koGTjgz41
— KellyMarkLive (@kellymarklive) October 26, 2023
After White brought up marriage, Ripa confessed, “For years, I mean, I think I speak for a lot of people, I thought you and Pat were married. Imagine my surprise when Pat came to our house for dinner one night —”
“And you weren’t there,” Consuelos interjected.
Ripa continued, “I was like, ‘Oh my god! Pat and Vanna must have gotten divorced!'”
Sajak is set to retire at the end of Season 41 next June, after which Ryan Seacrest will take over as host, with White staying on as his co-host.
As Ripa worked with Seacrest for several years, White said, “You have to tell me everything.”
Consuelos and Ripa both told White that Seacrest “can’t spell,” something Ripa previously talked to the American Idol host about on her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast.
White revealed she’s spoken to Ryan, saying, “He’s so nice, he’s so excited,” and he’s been sending her texts. But she believes he is “on his best behavior” with her.
“Maybe he’s dictating the texts and somebody’s typing it for him,” Ripa quipped. “Because, I will say, and I can say this freely, we have all experienced it here, when Ryan Seacrest texts you, you say to yourself, ‘This person is trying to tell me something.’”
“That’s the first thing,” she continued. “It’s that you realize that Ryan is trying to tell you something, but oftentimes, you just don’t know what that is!”
“Thanks for the warning,” White responded.
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