Betty White, former star of ‘The Golden Girls,’ had fears not a lot of people knew about. Here’s what she once said about the things that made her “shudder.”
Betty White, the late star of The Golden Girls, wasn’t afraid to die. However, there are other things the actor was afraid of. Here are some of the things the late White admitted she feared.
Betty White was afraid of fire
In her autobiography, White admitted fire was one of her biggest fears. She said the first thing she thought of when she heard the word “fear,” was fire. White revealed that wildfires filled her with “sheer paralyzing panic.”
White reasoned that living in California for most of her life likely fueled her fear of fire. She said witnessing the damage that fires can cause made her fear them. Whenever she saw someone throw a burning cigarette out of a car, she said she would become “absolutely paranoid” about the possibility it could cause a fire.
Betty White feared being embarrassed
Although White was known for being a great performer, she admitted she sometimes got stage fright while performing. She had a fear of going onstage and embarrassing herself. In her book, Betty White in Person, White wrote about her fear when it came to performing.
“Waiting to make an entrance on stage, your mouth dries up, you can’t get your upper lip down off your front teeth, your heart is around your knees,” wrote White. “Why? For fear of going out there and embarrassing yourself … and everyone else … by doing something really dumb.”
Betty White was afraid of falling
Another fear White had was falling. She worried about “doing something stupid,” like accidentally tripping on a rug or falling down the stairs and being unable to call someone for help. White mentioned her father, who used to walk around his home so quickly that everyone called him “the Hummingbird.” She said she had a habit of doing the same thing. “I do the same, and being a card-carrying klutz, I bump into things a lot,” wrote White.
White said she made sure to be careful when she was home alone. She didn’t want to find herself in a position where she had an accidental fall and couldn’t get help in time. She made an effort to slow down when she was walking around her home, and she didn’t carry a lot of things when walking down the stairs.
Betty White said she also had ‘minor fears’
White also had what she called “minor fears.” She said these smaller fears were considered routine things when she was married. She could easily check with her husband, Allen Ludden, who would ease her mind. One “minor fear” she had was going outside with too much makeup. She also worried about her breath, if her hair covered a blemish on her head, and if she snored.
The dying process scared Betty White
White was not afraid to die, but in the book Betty White in Person, she said she was afraid of the dying process. “Fear of death is not one of my problems, only of the dying,” said White. “The how, not the when of it.”
According to Jeff Witjas, White’s friend and public relations manager, White got her wish. Betty White “died peacefully in her sleep,” he told People. “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever.”
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