Why Betty White never remarried after her third husband
Betty White has won over audiences worldwide with her sense of humour in shows such as The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The 95-year-old star also has a love story that is just as stunning as her on-screen performances.
Betty was married twice before she met the love of her life, game show host Allen Ludden. In 1945, she married US army pilot Dick Barker and in 1947 she wed Hollywood agent Lane Allen, but the pair were divorced by 1949. The actress has said that neither of her first two marriages compare to her relationship with Allen.
When Betty was 39 she met Allen, a widower and father of three, when she appeared on his game show Password. Betty was “going steady” with someone else at the time and didn’t see a future for herself in New York where Allen filmed his show, however, the pair quickly fell in love. Betty refused Allen’s proposal twice but he persisted and even wore the engagement ring on a chain around his neck until she agreed to marry him. They were married in 1963.
The pair enjoyed 18 years of wedded bliss until 1981 when Allen devastatingly passed away from stomach cancer. When asked if she would ever marry again, Betty told the Daily Mail, “Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?”
"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."
"I had 18 wonderful years with Allen Ludden," she told Piers Morgan. "The first two were rehearsals."
In 2015, Betty told Oprah that her biggest regret was not accepting Allen’s first 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."
Their love story is forever immortalised with side-by-side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.