For a writer/blogger, I am bad at most word games. Scrabble leaves me cold. Words With Friends can eat it. Crosswords are the worst! My mind just doesn’t work that way. So occasionally, I do watch Wheel of Fortune, one of the dumbest shows out there but one which has survived because of dummies like me (honestly, I prefer Jeopardy because rando trivia is totally my jam and that’s definitely the way my mind works). Whenever I do watch Wheel of Fortune, I’m amazed that Vanna White still gets paid a huge amount of money to walk back and forth across a stage, lightly tapping letters which light up. It’s a great gig for her and she’s clung to it for 37 years. Vanna’s success is partly due to the fact that she never looked a gift horse in the mouth – she knew it was a sweet gig and she never really looked to move beyond it. With Pat Sajak out of WoF for a medical emergency, Vanna has been filling in as host of WoF. So People Magazine decided to do a nice little profile of her. She honestly sounds like a lovely person.
Wheel of Fortune‘s Vanna White has been a co-host of the show for 37 seasons (and counting!), but in a few weeks, she’ll take on the role of main host, filling in for Pat Sajak, who had to undergo emergency surgery for a blocked intestine. It’s safe to say that White, 62, has prayed for her colleague’s speedy recovery. “I grew up religious,” she recently told PEOPLE during a sit-down at her Beverly Hills home. “I was baptized a Baptist, and I’ve always had my own personal relationship with God.”
The South Carolina-born beauty queen, who landed the Wheel of Fortune gig when she was just 25 after moving to L.A. to continue her modeling career, said she grew up going to church and Sunday school each week. And while she identifies as a Christian, she never likes to preach about it.
“I don’t preach, because everyone’s entitled to their own beliefs,” she shared. “I don’t judge anyone for whatever religion they are. This is my religion and I speak openly about it, but again, I would never preach.” Still, she firmly believes in the power of prayer. “I pray every day,” she said.
White said prayer, plus the support she’s received from Wheel fans, has helped her through darker times, like when she lost her fiancé in a plane crash in 1986. “I heard from so many people who had shared the same experience of losing someone instantly in an accident, and that really helped me,” she told PEOPLE. “I didn’t feel like I was alone. Because when something like that happens, you immediately think you’re the only one.”
She also turned to her faith and her fans when she miscarried her first child just a week after announcing it via a puzzle on the set of the show. “Obviously I lost the baby, which was devastating after announcing it. The good news is I was able to get pregnant again and had two beautiful, healthy children. … But losing a child — there’s nothing good about that,” she told PEOPLE.
While White will only be hosting the show briefly as Sajak recovers before returning to her regular role as letter-turner, she said she has no intention of leaving her beloved job anytime soon. “We’re one big family,” she said of the Wheel of Fortune cast and crew. “It’s wonderful.”
“I don’t preach, because everyone’s entitled to their own beliefs.” Refreshing. She’s basically a small-town Southern Baptist who has lived in LA for long enough to know that she should keep her nose out of other people’s business. And truly, she’s getting paid millions of dollars to saunter around on stage and that’s it! Bless her. She’s absolutely harmless.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I once had a Baptist “friend” tell me that I was going to hell for praying to the Virgin Mary and believing in Saints (I’m Catholic). So yeah, I appreciate Vanna’s non judgemental attitude.
As someone who was raised a Baptist I can tell you that’s we’re taught to believe which doesn’t excuse the intrusion….sorry about that.
We are catholic,I understand where you are coming from @rapunzel.
That’s really sad.
I attended a Baptist church as a kid, but up here in the Northeast US, so not Southern Baptist. What I took from it was be kind to everyone. It’s really sad that anyone preaches anything but that.
I won’t say I was raised a Baptist because I never believed any of that, even as a child. I was taken to Baptist church every Sunday until I left for college. Not once did I ever hear any preaching against another religion. Of course, this was from 1945 until 1962, maybe things have changed.
I grew up Southern Baptist in Texas and I definitely remember hearing that about Catholics, and virtually anyone who wasn’t an evangelical Christian. It was disgusting. The only thing evangelical Christianity ever did for me was give me a litany of things to work through with a therapist.
When I was in high school, I had a seven year old girl tell me my soul was black because I didn’t believe in God (she’s a baptist). Seriously a judgey child! I wonder if she’s like that now since she’s an adult.
She’s probably deeply embarrassed she said that to you and is in therapy like the rest of us…
Oh, wow. That’s seriously dark, and I’m sorry for both you and the girl who said it. That’s so ugly.
My mother was seriously Catholic and my father was seriously Baptist, so going back and forth between their homes was awful. I had no faith at all until later in life. That kind of divisive garbage is so poisonous. I feel you, Rapunzel.
I’m Protestant. While I don’t agree with some Catholic doctrine, I don’t get the infighting between the churches. We all know what the most important doctrine of all Christian faiths are, we all believe, so why fight?
On holidays my husband and I go to Mass with his dad and though I’m not allowed to take communion, I try my best to keep up with everything else and sing along with everyone.
Ultimately, that hands-off approach, only speaking about your faith if someone asks or it naturally comes up in conversation, is better evangelization than all the zealots and recent converts do anyway.
Amen. So much this.
yes! When your beliefs are reflected in the way you behave and the way you live your life, that’s the most convincing testimonial all.
I wish more people were like that. Believe what you want, and let others do the same.
Anyone else remember wheel of fortune back in the day, where the contestants had to spend the money they won on various products set up in a room?
@Lucy2, I loved that ceramic Dalmatian that was lower cost, so nearly every person ended up buying it because they had to spend all their money and options were limited at the lower price point!!
Yes! I’m guessing they were made by a relative of a producer or something.
I saw one in a house a few years ago (it was like an 80s time capsule in there), I should have asked if they won it on Wheel!
Those awful living room suites!!
I dont believe in god/s, but do believe in the power of “prayer.” Everyone can direct their destiny through mindfulness. I live in the south and cant remember the last time i met someone who isnt churchy. Every once in a while I go to this food bank run by a very wierd evangelical sect in my town. They have good stuff and it is always great entertainment. Talking about actually seeing snakes in the aisles….. Anyway they will offer to pray with you and I always accept. So I think I broke this guy who prayed with me last time. He asked if I believe and I told him no but I believe in the power of prayer, so go ahead and pray away. I have never seen anyone look so confused and hurt. He starts crying after he prays and is just sobbing. Poor guy.
Expand your circle. You haven’t met me or any of the people I know. We live in the South. My parents were Baptist, but not fundamentalist or hard shell, just go to church on Sunday. Every Sunday I was taken to church from age 6 months to age 17 when I left home for college. That was in 1962 and I haven’t been to church since. I didn’t have any great awakening in college, it was just all those years in church never meant anything to me. I spent the time daydreaming or counting the tiles in the ceiling. This “everybody in the South is churchy” gets tedious. This isn’t the first time it’s shown up and it won’t be the last. Also, You know, we have indoor toilets now and have ethnic restaurants that aren’t Mexican or Chinese. I don’t harbor stereotypes about everyone who lives in NYC or Salt Lake City or Seattle, etc., but everyone seems to know what EVERYBODY in the South is like. Always something negative. Possibly get acquainted with some qualifiers like many or some or a few or a lot. That would be more realistic.
Ummmm…I live in the south and I’m not churchy. None of my friends or family are either. What south are you from? Get out more and meet more people
Didnt mean to offend u guys. I was born and raised here. I have extreme social anxiety so…..thats probably why I dont meet alot of people. So as soon as I conquer my worst fear I can hang out with u guys all the time!!!! like we can show each other baby pictures and talk all about ourselves.
I think what she said is great. I think far too many times, religious people love to preach and hope that sticks. They forget Jesus used truth and grace. He gained people’s trust by genuinely loving them and helping. He gave first and then the rest came. I feel like that’s where we have gone wrong as a church. We focus on wanting to “fix” people and shame them instead of loving.
So well said,I agree with you very much.
Brooke, your words are beautiful and so true! Thank you.
Exactly, Brooke. Exactly. True evangelism is generally silent. I will never understand how people claim to know Jesus in one breath and then start condemning people and prognosticating doom in the next.
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
Brooke, exactly! Thank you for putting that into words, exactly what I believe.
I like Vanna.
I was raised Catholic, serious 24/7/365 catholic, catholic schools, etc.
These last 35 neither myself or any of my siblings attend church.
Whatever your beliefs, if it gives you comfort = excellent.
None of my business at all. Any prayers are welcome because I see it as a sign of offering comfort, support, kindness. How can kindness ever be wrong?
And she has wonderful color sense! I’m a knitter and not really into crochet, but when I get the Lion Brand Yarn catalogs her yarns always have great colors. I’m sure there is a specialist helping, but her yarn colorways have always stood out, even from the rest of the Lion Brand collections, so I’m giving her credit. Having a wide variety of colors that all go well together in terms of tonal balance and color dominance is not easy. Rowan is the only other yarn brand that does it better. Her afghan books have great looking stuff as well.
It’s good quality as well. I haven’t bought it because I have yet to knit up the wool I bought when I worked at a yarn shop. If I ever do need to crochet up a non-wool afghan, I’ll definitely head to Michael’s for some Vanna.
I think Michaels discontinued the Vanna brand. I don’t see it anymore. Not sure if Lion still produces that line either.
I was raised a fundamental Baptist preacher’s daughter in the south and my mom’s parents were missionaries for 50 years. Church at least 3x per week. I never believed that the Bible is “God’s word” or any of the mystical aspects (virgin birth, son of God, resurrection, etc), but it did teach me compassion, mercy, and prayer (not that I believe that I’m praying “to” someone, just releasing energy from my mind). I know a lot of people (including my husband) who did not grow up religious and struggle with their lack of spirituality (and by “spirit” I do not mean magical invisible beings), so I am at least grateful that I was exposed to the ideas.
She and Pat Sajak get along really well together, apparently. He said in an interview that back in the day, they would get drunk before the show on a regular basis.