The Sweet Reason Betty White Never Remarried After Her Third Husband
We all know and love Betty White for her impeccable sense of humor and her memorable roles in classic shows including The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But what you may not know is that the 95-year-old star has a love story worth swooning over, too.
Betty married twice before meeting the love of her life, game show host Allen Ludden. She first wed U.S. army pilot Dick Barker in 1945; two years later, in 1947, she tied the knot with Hollywood agent Lane Allen, but the couple was divorced by 1949. According to the actress, neither of those relationships compared to the one she had with her third husband, Allen.
In 1961, Betty, then 39, met Allen, a widower and father of three, when she appeared as a contestant on his popular game show, Password. Betty was "going steady" with someone else at the time and didn't really see a future for herself in New York, where Allen filmed his show, but nevertheless, the two quickly fell in love, she told TV Legends. Despite the fact that Betty refused his proposal twice, Allen persisted, even wearing the engagement ring on a chain around his neck until she finally agreed to marry him. The two were married in 1963.
It seemed that Betty had found her happily ever after, enjoying 18 years of wedded bliss, until 1981 when Allen sadly passed away from stomach cancer. When asked if she would ever consider marrying again, Betty has maintained for years that she has no desire for a fourth husband. "Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?" she told the Daily Mail in 2011. "I made two mistakes before Allen, but the love of your life doesn't come along in every life, so I am very grateful that I found him."
Looking back on her relationships, Betty knew Allen was the one. "I had 18 wonderful years with Allen Ludden," she told Piers Morgan. "The first two were rehearsals."
In 2015, Betty told Oprah that her greatest regret was refusing Allen's initial proposal. "I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year that Allen and I could have had together, saying, 'No, I wouldn't marry him,'" she told Oprah on Where Are They Now. "I wasted a whole year we could have had together, but we made it. We finally did."
Now, their love story is marked by Betty's continued devotion—and forever immortalized with side-by-side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
(h/t Pop Sugar)
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