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- Vanna White has been the co-host of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.
- She’s currently in contract negotiations to stay on the show after Pat Sajak’s exit.
- Vanna was previously married to George Santo Pietro.
- She’s been in a relationship with John Donaldson since 2012.
Vanna White has been a TV staple for 40 years! As the hostess of Wheel of Fortune, she’s been a beloved personality, long associated with her role of revealing letters on the puzzles for years. Sadly, Vanna’s longtime co-host Pat Sajak is leaving the show in 2024 and is being replaced by Ryan Seacrest.
While Vanna is in contract negotiations on continue on with the show, in August of 2023, a report by Puck News revealed that she was replaced for a week in July by Bridgette Donald-Blue due to contracting COVID-19. An independent source confirmed to HollywoodLife that she did miss a day of taping, equaling five episodes, and her rare absence from the show came amid her contract negotiations.
While her time on the major game show is her most well-known accomplishment, Vanna, 66, has also had a few public relationships during her tenure as co-host. For the past decade, she’s been in a committed relationship with John Donaldson, who clearly makes her very happy! Keep reading to find out more about John and Vanna’s relationship as well as her past loves!
Vanna White has been dating John Donaldson since 2012
Vanna and John first started going out in 2012, and it’s clear that the pair have amazing chemistry together! The game show personality opened up about her ideal date night with her beau in a 2019 interview with Closer Weekly. “It would be a very simple dinner with a bottle of wine,” she told the outlet. “At home or at a restaurant, you know. As long as I’m not cooking!”
The pair seem to have a great relationship, and it looks like John gets along great with Vanna’s two kids. The Wheel of Fortune hostess has shared plenty of photos of herself with John and her grownup children on her Instagram, showing them celebrating holidays as a family. She’s gushed about John in interviews. “He is kind, understanding, and lets me be me,” she told Closer in 2016. “Today I am happy just the way things are. The biggest surprise to my fans is probably how simple I live in real life.”
John is a Contractor
While Vanna is a show business icon, John has been a business owner for about 30 years. He owns a contracting couple, which he began in 1992 and formally incorporated in 1998, according to his website. As a contractor, he’s worked on homes for stars like Richard Dreyfuss and Dan Akroyd, but he has skills that are perfect for a wide array of jobs. “For more than two decades JDC has been trusted by individuals, families and institutions throughout Southern and Northern California to complete a variety of residential property renovations, from custom single family homes to apartment communities ranging from 100 to 600 units,” his website says.
Are they planning on getting married?
Now that they’ve been together for about a decade, fans have wondered whether there are wedding bells in the air for Vanna and John. A source close to the hostess hinted that she was looking to tie the knot with John in June 2019, according to OK! Magazine. “She wants to be married before she turns 65 next February,” they said.
Despite the report, the pair are not married, and it doesn’t seem like the ring is very important to Vanna. “We feel married,” she told Closer in 2019. “So I don’t think you necessarily have to have a piece of paper unless you want to. Everybody’s different, so for each his own.”
Vanna’s first husband was George Santo Pietro
While Vanna may not seem like she’s in a hurry to get hitched to John, she was married once before to George Santo Pietro from 1990 to 2002. The exes share two kids: a son Nikko, 28, and daughter Gigi, 25. While the pair have mostly kept quiet about their relationship, they did reveal that Vanna was pregnant during a puzzle on Wheel in 1992, but she sadly suffered a miscarriage shortly after. She opened up about the heartbreak of the miscarriage in a 2019 interview with People. “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,” she said. “But losing a child — there’s nothing good about that.”
She was engaged two other times
Besides her marriage to George, Vanna was planning on walking down the aisle on at least two other occasions. She got engaged to dancer and actor John Gibson in the 80s. John was tragically killed in a plane crash in May 1986. She opened up about fans from the show sharing their stories about similar experiences with her in the above-mentioned People interview. “I heard from so many people who had shared the same experience of losing someone instantly in an accident, and that really helped me. I didn’t feel like I was alone,” she said.
After her divorce from George, Vanna began dating businessman Michael Kaye. The couple got engaged in 2004, but they never exchanged vows, and the pair have since split up. Of course, a few years later, she met her current boyfriend, and they seem so in love!
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