Blanche was the sexually liberated powerhouse of a character on The Golden Girls, but in many ways, she may have been compensating for her sadness.
The Golden Girls remains one of the most iconic sitcoms in history. It was groundbreaking in that it was one of the first series to reach such massive success with not only a predominantly female cast, but also one centered around women over the age of 50. Every character on The Golden Girls had her own style and unique personality , and this includes the promiscuous, fashion-conscious Southern Belle, Blanche Devereaux.
The character, which also appeared in the series Empty Nest and Nurses, was a memorable one. Sadly, the actor who played her, Rue McClanahan, passed away in 2010. But she remembers lives on and while, for the most part, Blanche was happy and carefree, there were some things that were quite sad about her.
She Suffered The Loss Of Big Daddy
Blanche was very close to her father, who everyone called “Big Daddy,” and thus she was devastated when he died. Not only did she lose her father, but she was not there when he passed because she was in Miami attending an event.
Curtis Hollingsworth not only saw Blanche as the apple of his eye, but she also looked up to him. So, the fact that she lost him and likely never really got over his death was sad.
She Missed Her Father’s Funeral
She Missed Her Father’s Funeral
She Found Out About Her Father’s Affair
Another sad thing about Blanche that relates to her father is the fact that she learned only after his death that he had been having an affair for his entire marriage with her mother. Curtis had been carrying on a relationship with the family’s nanny, Viola “Mammy” Watkins.
And the affair wasn’t just a short-lived thing: it lasted 50 years! There’s no word, however, on whether Blanche’s mother knew about it or not. Nevertheless, the knowledge definitely tainted Blanche’s memory of Big Daddy as being the perfect man.
She Had A Troubled Relationship With Her Siblings
Blanche had four siblings and there seemed to be conflict with each of them. She fought with her sister Charmaine after the latter wrote a novel about Blanche’s sex life, only to later discover that the book wasn’t about her at all.
She also didn’t get along with her younger and spoiled sister, Virginia, which came to a head when Virginia called Blanche selfish for not saying goodbye to their father. Meanwhile, she had trouble accepting her younger brother Clayton when he came out as gay, and she mentally challenged her older brother, Tad, spent most of his life in an institution.
She Couldn’t Accept Her Brother’s Coming Out
Being from the South and from a whole other generation, it’s not surprising that Blanche had trouble accepting the fact that her younger brother Clayton was gay. When he came out, Blanche was quite troubled by the news.
In fact, her inability to accept him and who he was almost led to Blanche losing the one sibling she didn’t have an ongoing rivalry with, and the only brother with whom she had a relationship.
She Suffered The Death Of Her Husband
It seems much of Blanche’s promiscuous nature stems from dealing with the death of her one true love, her husband George Devereaux. They were high school sweethearts, and when he died, it hit Blanche hard.
How George died has been inconsistent (it has been said that he stepped on a land mine while she was having a pedicure but also that he died in a car accident). Still, Blanche either responds by purposely only having meaningless relationships, or trying to date as many men as she could in search of the next love of her life.
Her Choice In Men Was Often Terrible
Did Blanche go after the wrong type of men on purpose because she knew no one could live up to the reputation of George? Or did she just really have bad luck in choosing men? Blanche dated a lot of bad characters, from a bigamist in the first episode and a man who stole from her to one who was emotionally and verbally abusive and one who even cheated on her by sleeping with her sister in Blanche’s home.
Meanwhile, when she did find good men, she ruined the relationship, like with Jake, who wanted to marry her, and Steven, who reconciled with his ex during the time he was hospitalized and Blanche refused to go see him. Often, she didn’t know how to handle it, such as the blind date where she met a man who didn’t fall for her tricks and claimed he wanted an “old-fashioned romance.”
She Had A Bad Reputation
Despite her reasons for doing so, and the many instances of slut-shaming on the show, the fact that Blanche slept around gave her a bad reputation with others. Because of this reputation, when Dorothy’s boyfriend Elliot made a pass at Blanche, Dorothy didn’t believe her.
On another occasion, someone threatened to release compromised photos of Blanche, as well as the commissioners she slept with, to stop the ladies from rallying against a road extension that would have destroyed a landmark tree. Even the roommates themselves would often slut-shame Blanche because of her propensity for sleeping around.
Her Husband Had An Affair
Despite deeply how Blanche loved her husband, things weren’t always rosy. They had five children together: Janet, Rebecca, Biff, Doug, and Skippy/Matthew, several of whom make appearances on the series. But it turns out that George had another child named David as the result of an affair, which Blanche learns about after his death.
She Has A Strained Relationship With Her Kids
Blanche expressed regret on numerous occasions about her relationship with her five children and not being there for them as much as she could have been. A “hands-off” type of mother, she was more focused on herself and appearance than her kids a lot of the time.
She had an especially strained relationship with her daughters, and before to the beginning of the show, had a falling out with her daughter Rebecca when she wanted to drop out of school to become a model in Paris. She went through significant ups and downs with Rebecca, including not wanting to accept her decision to have a baby by artificial insemination.
