Vanna White considered leaving ‘Wheel of Fortune’ after Pat Sajak’s retirement

Vanna White thought about taking her own final spin on “Wheel of Fortune” when she learned that co-host Pat Sajak was retiring.

Sajak, 76, announced his retirement plans in June, with the current 44th season of the game show being his last. But White, 66, decided to stick around a bit longer.

“It’s like, ‘Well, wait, if you’re leaving, what am I going to do? How can I stay without you?'” she told People magazine in an interview published Wednesday. “It was a very hard decision for me to make, because it definitely crossed my mind. It’s like, ‘I just don’t know if I can do this without you,’ but I thought about it and I’m not ready to retire, so I am staying on.”

Sajak and White have been nearly inseparable while co-hosting “Wheel” for 41 years. White says she’s not sure what the show will be like when her old pal departs.

“I mean, I know everything about him,” she told People. “He knows everything about me. I can tell when he’s walking up the stairs. Our dressing rooms are on the second floor. I can hear in his footsteps when he is walking up the steps, if he’s going to be in a good mood or not. Forty-one years together, you know each other so well.”

Ryan Seacrest will take over Sajak’s job beginning with the 2024-25 season. White meanwhile is set to continue spinning letters through the 2025-26 season after signing a contract extension in September — which also gave her a pay raise for the first time in 18 years.

Seacrest, 48, was thrilled when he heard White would be sticking around.

“I have been very excited to work with her,” he said after the extension was announced. “But now that it’s official I can say, ‘Congratulations Vanna! I can’t wait.'”

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