Betty White’s last word before she died was reportedly her late husband Allen Ludden’s name.
In an exclusive interview, actor Vicki Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter that she learned White had called out for her husband before the 99-year-old actor died “peacefully in her sleep” on 31 December 2021.
Lawrence and White met on the sets of sketch comedy hit The Carol Burnett Show, and went on to co-star in the series’ spin-off Mama’s Family.
When Lawrence was asked about the last time she spoke to White , the 72-year-old told THR that it had been a while since the actors had been in touch.
However, Lawrence continued, she spoke to Burnett in the wake of White’s death, and learned that The Golden Girls star had called out for her husband moments before she passed away.
“[Burnett] said she spoke to Betty’s assistant, who was with her when she passed, and she said the last word out of her mouth was ‘Allen’,” Lawrence said.
“It’s so lovingly sweet, I hope it’s true,” she added.
White married Emmy Award-winning gameshow host Ludden in 1963, after two prior failed marriages. The Hot in Cleveland star never remarried after Ludden died from stomach cancer in 1981.
White explained her decision not to remarry during a 2014 appearance on Larry King Now, when she told the show’s late host: “When you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?”
In the official statement confirming her death, White’s agent Jeff Whitjas said White never feared dying because she always wanted to be “with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden”.
“She believed she would be with him again,” the statement read.
