Did Betty White's Stepchildren Like Her As Much As The Rest Of The World Did?
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Whenever a celebrity passes away, there are a lot of people who mourn their loss including their family and fans. However, when news broke that Betty White passed away mere days before she turned 100 years old, it almost felt like you could feel the world become a little bit sadder. The reason for that is simple, she had legions of fans which is why so many people petitioned to have Betty host SNL.When Betty White took her last breath, she left behind a truly impressive fortune, to say the very least. More importantly, Betty left behind a legacy of providing the world with entertainment for decades. However, even though it is abundantly clear that Betty had legions of devoted fans, a lot of fans don’t know whether or not she was adored by her family.
The Truth About Betty White’s Family
Most of the time when people rise to fame, they should keep their expectations guarded. After all, the vast majority of stars fade away not that long after the world learns who they are.
Fortunately for Betty White, that definitely wasn’t the case for her. After starting her entertainment career in radio, Betty went on to be a TV and movie star for decades.
Even though Betty White caught a lot of breaks in Hollywood, the truth of the matter is she was a lot less fortunate in her personal life. Between 1945 and 1981, Betty White was married and divorced twice.
Unfortunately, Betty’s first marriage ended after only eight months and she got divorced roughly two years after she walked down the aisle a second time.
When Betty White spoke to CBS in 2012, she explained why she never gave birth to any biological children.
"No, I've never regretted it. I'm so compulsive about stuff, I know if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would have been my whole focus. But I didn't choose to have children because I'm focused on my career. And I just don't think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both.”
Even though Betty White was very clear about prioritizing her career too much to go through the pregnancy process, that doesn’t mean that she never was a maternal figure for anyone.
In 1963, Betty White walked down the aisle one last time with a man named Allen Ludden, who Betty clearly adored; she once said she'd never remarry after Allen passed because she'd already had "the best." Since Ludden had three kids from another relationship, they became Betty’s stepkids.
Though Allen passed away in 1981, Betty continued to refer to his kids, David, Martha, and Sarah, as her stepchildren until she passed away.
Was Betty White Close With Her Stepchildren?
In the past, Betty White spoke to People about having three stepchildren. At that time, Betty said she felt ‘blessed” to have her kids in his life and she stated that “it turned out great”. While there is no reason to not believe those comments, everyone above a certain age knows things are rarely that simple.
Almost anytime a parent takes on a new spouse or partner, tensions eventually arise. Unfortunately, according to reports, things didn’t always go so smoothly for Betty White and her stepchildren.
When Betty and Allen Ludden got married, his kids were coming of age including his eldest daughter Martha who was a teen. Of course, teenagers can be hard to get along with even if their family isn’t going through a massive change. With that in mind, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Martha initially rejected Betty according to Pop Crunch.
“Martha was young and she deeply opposed the marriage. She was very angry at her father and made it clear she did not like Betty.” Since Betty White’s relationship with her stepdaughter Martha Ludden reportedly was “strained from the start”, it also has been said that caused other tensions in the family.
According to reports, Betty’s third husband fought with his daughter a lot for a while. “Allen used to argue with Martha constantly over her anger towards Betty.”
Putting aside the frosty relationship Betty White once reportedly had with her eldest stepdaughter, she reportedly always got along with her other stepkids.
On top of that, Betty and Martha Ludden reportedly put aside the tensions many, many years ago which allowed her to be close with all of her stepkids.
As a result, when Betty turned 98 years old in 2020, a friend of the actor revealed all of her stepchildren were invited to the party even though their father had long since passed away, and they could have cut ties with Betty had they chosen to.
On another occasion, one of Betty White’s other close friends spoke about the legendary actor’s bond with her stepchildren. According to Sandra Bullock, Betty felt “blessed” to be a stepmother. “[Betty] said, ‘You know what? I never had children biologically. I married someone who had three children. And how blessed I was to have those three stepchildren.’”
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