After 40 years alongside Pat Sajak, Vanna White faced a choice when her longtime co-host retired in 2023: leave with him, or stay. She chose to stay—and a year into working with Ryan Seacrest, she's still glad she did.
"Working with someone for that long, I feel like I should maybe go with him," White told E! News. But retirement didn't feel right. "I'm just not ready to retire yet. I'm having fun. I feel good. I feel healthy."
It's a small decision that says something larger about what happens when a partnership that defined a show for decades suddenly ends. White and Sajak were the constants—the rhythm section of daytime television. When he announced his plans to step down in June 2023, the question wasn't just about him. It was about whether Wheel of Fortune would still feel like Wheel of Fortune.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxRyan Seacrest took over as host in September 2024, and the transition could have felt jarring. Instead, White describes the dynamic differently than the Sajak years. If Pat and Vanna were "peanut butter and jelly," she and Ryan are "peanut butter and honey"—still complementary, still working, but with a different flavor.
"We get along great," White said. "He's such a nice guy and he's so professional and hardworking and we just gel." They're now in their second year together, and what could have been awkward has become genuinely easy. The chemistry matters, especially in a show built on repetition and comfort. People tune in partly because they know what they're getting.
White hasn't ruled out future changes. She's open to branching out, trying new things. But for now, she's taking it one year at a time—a pragmatic approach from someone who's learned that longevity in television isn't about forever commitments. It's about showing up when it still feels good to show up.
The show that survived the transition of its most famous host is now finding its footing with a new pairing. And White, at a point in her career where she could have stepped away, decided the work still had something to offer.
