Betty White starred alongside Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty for seven seasons on the Golden Girls.
The charm and on-camera chemistry among White’s Rose Nylund, Arthur’s Dorothy Zbornak, McClanahan’s Blanche Devereaux, and Estelle Getty’s Sophia Petrillo is now the stuff of legend.
But behind the scenes there was a major feud over one move by White that rubbed Arthur and McClanahan the wrong way.
Golden Girls stars Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Bea Arthur as Dorothy Petrillo Zbornak, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, Betty White as Rose Nylund
Betty White was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2014 for having the longest TV career for a female entertainer. That year marked her 70th year in show business. And by the end of her illustrious life, the Golden Girls star had become a national treasure.
But not everyone was a fan of White. Most notably, her Golden Girls co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan. And it was one move that White made on set that started their infamous feud.
Betty White’s ‘Golden Girls’ co-stars called her the C-word
Golden Girls was an Emmy-winning NBC sitcom that ran for seven seasons between 1985 and 1992. It remains popular to this day, thanks to the sitcom’s biting wit, its fearlessness when approaching controversial topics, and the often inappropriate hijinks of women over the age of 55.
The charm and on-camera chemistry among White’s Rose Nylund, Arthur’s Dorothy Zbornak, McClanahan’s Blanche Devereaux, and Estelle Getty’s Sophia Petrillo is now the stuff of legend. But it was a completely different story behind the scenes.
According to Golden Girls casting director Joel Thurm, the stars of the show did not like White. In fact, Arthur went as far as calling the Mary Tyler Moore Show alum a “see you next Tuesday.”
“Literally Bea Arthur, who I cast in something else later on, just said, ‘Oh, she’s a f**king c**t,’ using that word,” Thurm told host Andrew Goldman on an episode of The Originals podcast, per The New York Post.
One move started her feud on set with Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan
When pressed by Goldman, Thurm said that he heard Arthur call White the C-word with his own ears. Then, he added that McClanahan also used the word when referring to White.
“By the way, so did Rue McClanahan. Rue McClanahan said it to me in Joe Allen’s [restaurant]; Bea Arthur [when she was] on the set of Beggars and Choosers,” Thurm recalled.
The casting director went on to explain that it was one move by White on the set of The Golden Girls that sparked the feud with her co-stars. He said that Getty — who died in 2008 at the age of 84 from Lewy body dementia — started having trouble memorizing her lines.
“And she would write the lines on her hand, and … Betty White would make fun of her in front of the live audience,” Thurm said. “That may seem like a minor transgression, but it really does get to you … I have no idea how Estelle Getty felt, but I know the other two did not like [White] at all.”
Betty White gave her side of the feud before her death
The feud on the set of The Golden Girls has often been blamed on jealousy over White getting the first nomination for the Best Actress Emmy in 1986. But according to the author of Golden Girls Forever — Jim Colucci — the tension on set was due to the ladies’ different approaches to acting.
Arthur always remained in character during the taping of an episode. While White would relax between takes and joke around with the studio audience.
“I think my mom didn’t dig that,” Arthur’s adopted son, Matthew Saks, told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s more about being focused or conserving your energy. It’s just not the right time to talk to fans between takes. Betty was able to do it and it didn’t seem to affect her. But it rubbed my mom the wrong way.”
In 2011, White gave her side of the story during an interview with The Village Voice. She said that “Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude — and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she’d be furious!”
The Golden Girls is available to stream on Hulu.
SEE MORE: The enduring joy of Golden Girls: a wildly sassy sitcom that will always cheer you up
