- Vanna White, 65, opened up about what it’s been like to watch herself age on Wheel of Fortune over the last 40 years.
- She began co-hosting the game show in 1982 and is still turning letters today.
- “I’m not a young spring chicken anymore and, it is what it is,” she said. “I do the best I can.”
In 1982, Vanna White became Wheel of Fortune’s letter-turning co-host alongside Pat Sajak. And 40 years later, the two are still running the show. Obviously, neither Sajak nor White are still the young adults who started on the game show, and in a new interview, White admitted that watching herself age on-screen has been an interesting experience, to say the least.
When she looks back at 25-year-old White, she sees “a baby,” she told Yahoo! Life, joking that it’s “depressing”to see how much she’s changed over the years. But she isn’t one to fight the aging process.
“I’m not a young spring chicken anymore and, it is what it is,” she said. “I do the best I can. I eat pretty good. I exercise. I just try to stay healthy, and be the best I can at my age. That’s all you can do.”
White noted that her wardrobe for the show has experienced just as many changes as she has to accommodate the latest fashion trends. Since the beginning of her co-hosting role, she’s worn over 7,000 dresses.
“From the big shoulder pads to the skimpy dresses, I’ve worn it all,” she said. “The designers send their latest clothes every year and I wear them. So it’s really up to them. It’s their style and I’m modeling their clothes. So the pressure really isn’t on me.”
She rides her spin bike five days a week and does regular push-ups and sit-ups to stay in shape. “I’m still wearing these clothes that I’ve been wearing for the past 40 years,” she said. “I have to do a fitting every couple of weeks, so I need to fit into these sample sizes. That keeps me encouraged.”
But you’ll very rarely find White in a formal gown when she’s not working. “I am who I am on TV. When I’m off TV, you’re just going to see me in jeans and no makeup,” she explained.
She attributes her off-camera low maintenance to her roots—she grew up with a casual beach lifestyle in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“On TV, I’m dressed up glamorous and so forth. But when I go home, I’m in sweats and jeans and tennis shoes—but I’m still the same person on the inside,” she said. That’s also why she’s never seen herself as the “sex symbol” fans have always made her out to be.
“I’m just so simple and comfortable and not glammed out all the time,” she added. “I feel like I’m just that country girl.”
It’s unclear how much longer White and Sajak will continue their Wheel of Fortune reigns, but Sajak recently told Entertainment Tonightthat the “end is near” for him. “It’s been a long [time]. We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years,” he said. “It’s an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long. People were out there welcoming us. We’re happy and proud.”
Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer who reports on all things health and nutrition for Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Prevention. Her hobbies include perpetual coffee sipping and pretending to be a Chopped contestant while cooking.
- View author archive
- follow on twitter
January 7, 2021 | 12:55pm
Vanna White says she and Pat Sajak “never fight.”
“Maybe because we don’t see each other for two weeks at a time and then we see each other for a couple of days and then we don’t see each other,” the “Wheel of Fortune” co-host recently told Page Six.
White, 63, and Sajak, 74, have presided over the game show since 1982, and with every passing year, the television personality seems to be defying age.
She credits “good hair and makeup people” and maintaining her trim figure.
“I do wardrobe fittings once a month and for 38 years I’ve had to fit into those dresses because they’re samples sizes,” she explained. “So I’m afraid of getting to the studio one day and not being able to fit in those dresses so it inspires me to work out on a regular basis.”
Vanna White and Pat SajakGetty ImagesWhite will be showing off some new threads for a host of celebs starting Thursday, January 7 when the show debuts “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.”
Without divulging too much, White told us the glitzy contestants “were really good players.”
“I didn’t know if they could play the game well because it’s definitely easy but it’s not as easy as it looks,” she explained. “And it’s a situation like that where you don’t have a script in front of you that you’re used to and you have to play a game in front of millions of people. No matter who you are you get nervous but they all did so well.”