Pat Sajak and Vanna White have always been the ultimate example of cohost chemistry — but their Wheel of Fortune destinies could have been very different.
“I didn’t recommend Vanna, and Vanna knows this,” Sajak told CBS Sunday Morning in 2020 while reflecting on White’s audition nearly four decades prior. “Not that she wasn’t lovely and wonderful and personable and all that. But she was the most nervous, by far, of any of them.”
Sajak initially tried out for the game show gig in 1980 and was made host one year later. In 1982, White was one of the last women in the running for the letter turning role.
However, creator Merv Griffin was confident that White was the right choice, telling White at the time that she and Sajak “make a great brother-sister team. I see you guys together.’”
As their Wheel of Fortune careers continued, the twosome developed a strong bond both on and off screen. However, the pair’s relationship has always remained strictly professional — and platonic.
Scroll down to relive Sajak and White’s best friendship moments: