Vanna White thanks ‘Wheel of Fortune’ fans for helping her through tragic loss: 'I remember looking...'
Vanna White has successfully been hosting ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for over 4 decades! But she wasn’t in a great place when the gig first began. A tragedy befell the host when her fiancé died in a plane accident four years before she joined the game show. White, now 68, was engaged to ‘The Young and the Restless’ actor John Gibson, who died when a plane he was flying crashed near Los Angeles in 1986. In an interview with People magazine, the veteran host recalled the ill-fated day. “The second I heard about it, I fell to my knees. It was just devastating,” White admitted. But at the time, she had no idea that joining a game show would change her life.
White credited ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and its fans for helping her through the difficult time. “I heard from so many people who had shared the same experience of losing someone instantly in an accident, and that really helped me,” White admitted. “I didn’t feel like I was alone. Because when something like that happens, you immediately think you’re the only one,” the host added. She eventually met restaurateur George Santo Pietro and the pair tied the knot in 1990. Two years later, she announced her pregnancy on the show through a puzzle that spelled: ‘Vanna’s Pregnant.’
White revealed that she had been pining to be a mother for quite a while, so she immediately announced it to the world. But in yet another tragic turn of events, she had a miscarriage a week later. “Obviously, I lost the baby, which was devastating after announcing it,” she recalled. She again turned to ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for support, and they didn’t disappoint. “You have to take their support and try to be strong. It’s so hard, but you just have to think, ‘What would they want me to do?’” Another thing that helped heal the traumas was faith. “I’m a Christian and have always had my own personal relationship with God,” she revealed.
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Eventually, she conceived for the second time and welcomed son Nicholas ‘Nikko.’ Two years later, she welcomed another, a daughter, Giovanna ‘Gigi.’ “I was able to get pregnant again and had two beautiful, healthy children. But losing a child, there’s nothing good about that,” she summed. In 2002, White and Pietro split amicably. White found love for the third time with real estate developer John Donaldson. The duo didn’t marry but have been living together for most of their courtship. “I remember looking at him and thinking, ‘He’s really cute.' We ended up talking for a long time that night,” she gushed over her boyfriend. “It just works. He lets me be me, I let him be him. There is no drama,” White explained.
She joined ‘Wheel of Fortune’ in 1982 alongside co-host Pat Sajak, and the duo worked in tandem for decades until the latter’s retirement in 2023. However, when the publication asked about White’s retirement plans, she denied one in the foreseeable future. “We’re one big family. It’s wonderful,” she said.