When Pat Sajak announced he was leaving “Wheel of Fortune” after the current season, his cohost Vanna White nearly walked with him.
“Of course it’s a thought. It’s like, ‘Well, wait, if you’re leaving, what am I going to do? How can I stay without you?’” White told PEOPLE. “It was a very hard decision for me to make, because it definitely crossed my mind. It’s like, ‘I just don’t know if I can do this without you,’ but I thought about it and I’m not ready to retire, so I am staying on.”
White had been in contract negotiations earlier this year and eventually extended her deal to remain cohost of “Wheel of Fortune.” She said it will “be different” working with Sajak’s replacement, Ryan Seacrest.
"I know Ryan — he is professional, he's good at what he does, he's kind," she said. "I think it's going to be good. He's such a nice guy and he loves what he does. He said, 'Look, I am not replacing Pat. I'm not going in to try to fill Pat's shoes. No one can ever replace him.' He says he's coming in to do a good job and to keep the show going, and I'm looking forward to working with him."
While Sajak is still in the host role, White said everyone is going to make sure his last months are memorable.
“We are celebrating this year with Pat and all the good times, all the 41 years, all the memories,” she said. “We are going to be doing some incredible stuff to say goodbye to Pat at the end of the season. We have almost a whole season to do that, to just look at all the great things that we’ve done together. I’m so looking forward to that. It’s going to be very sad.”