Hollywood’s iconic artist Betty White, died on December 31, 2021. The beloved actress was 99 years old when she died, and she was less than three weeks away from celebrating her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022. Betty White remained active in the final decade of her career, which helped her amass a sizable net worth. Who are Betty White’s kids?
She never had her own biological children. She was, however, a nurturing mother figure to Allen Ludden’s three children from his first tied knots with Margaret McGloin. Betty and Allen married in 1963, two years after Margaret died from cancer. Later, Betty became a mother to three stepchildren. Betty White’s children David, Martha, and Sarah Ludden.
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When asked about her time as a stepmother, Betty told PEOPLE, “It turned out great.” The Golden Girls actress described her family as “blessed.” She stated why she never wanted to have children with Allen in a 2012 interview with CBS.
“I’m so compulsive about stuff, I know if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would have been my whole focus,” she said. “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.”
Betty went on to say that she didn’t regret her decision because she had spent nearly seven decades as a caring stepmother.
Let’s take a trip down to Betty White’s life and remember the legend: Pictures of Betty White Stepchildren. Are Betty white stepchildren still alive? Where are betty white’s stepchildren? How many kids does Betty white have? Let’s have a look.
Who Was Betty White?
Born on 17 January 1922, Oak Park, Illinois in the United States, Betty Marion White was a pioneer of early television, with a television career spanning more than seven decades.
During the Great Depression, she moved to Los Angeles with her parents, traveling salesman and electrical engineer Horace White, and homemaker Tess Curts White. Camping with her parents once a year in the Sierra Nevadas fueled her passion for animals. “We once ended up with 26 dogs,” White told PEOPLE in 1999.
White didn’t go to college and began performing on the radio, but before embarking on an acting career, she married twice: first to WWII pilot Dick Barker in 1945 (the marriage lasted only a few months after he took her home to an Ohio chicken farm), and then to agent Lane Allen in 1947, who wanted her to give up showbiz.
When her marriage ended in 1949, she and an L.A. deejay named Al Jarvis got their start on local TV, which ultimately led to her first sitcom, Life with Elizabeth, which was nationwide syndicated.
She met Allen Ludden who was a widower with three children, in 1963, and he proposed marriage to her that Easter.
Betty had a warm and popular presence on television, with a career that spanned decades and dated back to the medium’s early days. Long before her hilarious turns on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, she appeared in the I Love Lucy-like Life with Elizabeth, which she also produced, in 1952.
White once told TV Guide, “I’m the luckiest person in the world. My life is divided in absolute half: half animals, half show business”. She added, “I have to stay in show business to pay for my animal work!”
Ludden, 63, died in 1981 of stomach cancer. They had been married for 18 years, during which White reigned supreme from 1973 to 1977.
Who are Betty White’s step children? Pictures of Betty White’s Stepchildren
David Ludden
David Ludden is the eldest of Betty Whits’s kids. According to Closer Weekly, the actress’ eldest stepchild, David, was born in 1948. According to the publication, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978, David received his Ph.D. and taught South Asian history there until 2007.
David is also a published author, according to reports, having written India and South Asia: A Short History. He also received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, and as of 2022, he teaches Asian History at New York University, according to Closer Weekly.
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When asked about her stepchildren, the “The Proposal” star stated that she has the best stepchildren in the world. She revealed that when she married her third husband, Allen Ludden, she became a stepmother to teenagers. White stated, “But we got along so great. So great, they called me ‘Dragon Lady,’ lovingly. Even after all these years, we love each other dearly.”
Martha Ludden
Martha Ludden was reportedly born in 1950, making her 11 years old when her mother died of cancer in 1961. Martha allegedly clashed with her father over the marriage after Betty and Allen married in 1963, putting a strain on Martha’s relationship with Betty. However, as Closer reported in 2020, Betty celebrated her 98th birthday with all of her stepchildren.
Martha, like all of Betty White’s stepchildren, has lived a life away from the spotlight. She is said to have carved her own path in the legal world. According to reports, she earned her law degree in 1990 and worked with people with disabilities.
Allen Ludden, Martha’s father, was Betty’s third husband. Previously, she was married to Dick Barker and Lane Allen. Allen Ludden died of stomach cancer in 1981, and Betty never married again. Betty was said to have called out Allen’s name just before she died.
Sandra Bullock, who co-starred with Betty on The Proposal, told PEOPLE that Betty loved being a stepmother. “‘You know what, Betty? I never had biological children. I married a woman with three children. And how fortunate I was to have three stepchildren.”
Sarah Ludden
Sarah Ludden, who was born in 1952, was only nine years old when her mother died. Unlike Martha, Sarah had a good relationship with her stepmother, according to Closer, who claims that the youngest frequently intervened during arguments between the two.
Sarah allegedly trained as an audiologist and dancer. This love of movement allegedly led to a career in karate. She and her partner Nancy Lanoue founded the Thousand Waves martial arts school. Sarah is a fifth-degree black belt in both the World Seido Karate Organization and Kajukenbo Kung Fu.
She also established the Thousand Waves Scholarship Fund, which has provided over $100,000 in tuition assistance to her students.
It’s unclear whether Martha and White ever rekindled their romance. Aside from that, Martha grew up to be a successful lawyer, earning her law degree in 1990. Does Betty White have any family? Yes, she had her step children along with her.
Sarah, the youngest sibling, was born in 1952. In contrast to Martha and White, she had a wonderful relationship with her stepmother. She frequently attempted to mediate between White and Martha.
Sarah began her career as an audiologist and dancer, but she later switched to karate. Together with her partner Nancy Lanoue, she founded Thousand Waves, a small karate school.
Ludden and McGloin were married for 18 years, but when she died in 1961, the game show host moved on with White, who had previously been married twice.
White married US Army pilot Dick Barker in 1945, but their marriage was short-lived as they divorced later that year.
During WWII, the two met in Los Angeles. Barker proposed to her before departing for the war, and they exchanged love letters throughout the conflict.
After returning home, the couple married, but White realised she had made a mistake only four months later. She later revealed that they married so they could sleep together, saying:
“It lasted six months, and we were in bed for six months!”
She married Lane Allen in 1947 after they divorced. Their marriage lasted only two years, and the actor died in 1995.
When Allen showed up to scout new talent at the Bliss-Hayden during White’s performance in their latest production, the two met. After spotting her on set, he introduced himself backstage.
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White was immediately flattered and asked her out. Soon after, they began dating and eventually married. Their marriage soured when Allen put pressure on White to give up her career two years into their marriage. She refused because it was a deal-breaker for her. She stated:
“When you have a calling, you have to follow it, so I made the choice, blew the marriage, and I’ve never regretted it.”
In 1961, White met her third husband, Ludden, when she appeared as a guest on a game show hosted by him called “Password.”
Following that, they reconnected for the play “Critic’s Choice,” where they fell in love. Was Betty White close to her step children? Yes, she was very close to them.
They began dating a year later while working on summer stock in Cape Cod as a married couple in the romantic comedy “Critic’s Choice.”
They shared a long-extended kiss on stage one night while performing, and White’s then-boyfriend noticed the chemistry between them.
Pictures of Betty White’s Stepchildren
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