"Wheel of Fortune" star Vanna White has had to face her share of heartache over the years but in times of darkness her faith and fans carried her through.
The 62-year-old television personality opened up about her past to People. In the interview published Thursday, she revisited her painful memories.
The first blow came in 1986 when her then-fiancé John Gibson from "The Young and the Restless" was tragically killed in a plane crash. The incident took place just four years after White had landed a spot in "Wheel of Fortune" and it left her devastated, she said.
The second blow came in 1992 when White suffered a miscarriage a week after announcing her pregnancy on air. She had married George Santo Pietro in 1990 and they had been trying for a baby. The two losses initially left White feeling isolated and alone but then viewers and fans began to reach out to her.
"You have to take their support and try to be strong. It’s so hard, but you just have to think, 'What would they want me to do?'" she said of her support base. White also turned to God for comfort. "I’m a Christian and have always had my own personal relationship with God," she says. "I don’t preach about it, because everyone’s entitled to their own beliefs. But I pray. I pray every day."
Opening up about her miscarriage, White said she was devastated having to announce the news to the world. She later fell pregnant again and gave birth to two "beautiful, healthy children" but nothing can compare to the heartache of losing a child.
Then in 2002 White and Pietro split. It was an amicable separation but after 12 years of marriage, and having gone through the miscarriage together, parting ways was not easy. White did go on to find happiness though with her live-in boyfriend John Donaldson, a real estate developer.
"It just works," she said of their relationship. "He lets me be me, I let him be him. There is no drama."
White also happily continues to host "Wheel of Fortune" despite rumors of her retirement. "We’re one big family," she said of the cast. "It’s wonderful."
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