Why Didn’t Betty White Have Any Children?

Legendary actor Betty White has died at the age of 99 on December 31, 2021. White did not have any children of her own.

White was married three times; she was married to Dick Barker for less than one year, and then to Lane Allan from 1947 through 1949. She met her third husband, Allen Ludden, in 1963, when she was a guest on the gameshow “Password.” White had called Ludden the love of her life on more than one occasion. The two exchanged vows in 1963 and remained married until Ludden died of stomach cancer in 1981.

“Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?” she previously told Larry King, according to ABC News. “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,” she said.

Ludden had three kids from a previous marriage, and White was happy to be a step mother.

“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again,” her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told People magazine after news of her death hit the internet.

Here’s what you need to know:

White Did Not Regret Not Having Her Own Kids

Getty ImagesBetty White.

White grew up as an only child, and wasn’t used to having a house full of children running around when she was younger. However, the desire to have children really never overpowered her desire to have a successful career.

White chose not to have children because she wanted to focus on her career — and she felt as though she couldn’t do both. As the years passed, many wondered if White ever regretted not having children of her own. However, she did not.

“I’m so compulsive about stuff, I know if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would have been my whole focus. But I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career. And I just don’t think as compulsive as I am, that I could manage both,” Betty told CBS Sunday Morning back in 2012.

White Was Content Being a Stepmother

Getty ImagesBetty White.

White was happy to play the role of stepmother to Ludden’s three children, David, Martha, and Sarah. In an interview with People magazine, actor Sandra Bullock shared something that White once said to her.

“[Betty] said, ‘You know what? I never had children biologically. I married someone who had three children. And how blessed I was to have those three stepchildren.’ That’s exactly what happened to me,” Bullock explained.

David was a teenager when his dad married White, while his two sisters were younger. According to Closer Weekly, Ludden’s middle child, Martha, didn’t care much for White when she was younger, and pitched a bit of a fit when she found out that her father was getting remarried.

Nevertheless, it is believed that White had a good relationship with all three of her stepchildren. When Ludden died in 1981, White continued her relationship with her bonus kids.

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