Were ‘The Golden Girls’ Really Friends Off-Screen? Betty White Spills on Bea Arthur Feud
Betty White says Bea Arthur ‘found me a pain’ — but their bond made TV magic
“Thank you for being a friend” — well at least for the most part. On-screen, these ladies were the core four, always there for each other without fail, but behind the scenes, the story goes a bit differently. The Golden Girls, starring Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, had a few off-screen feuds stirring up when the cameras stopped rolling. Read on for all the gossip from The Golden Girls set and see which two co-stars didn’t really get along.
Betty White and Bea Arthur didn’t always click
Although White (Rose Nylund) and Arthur (Dorothy Zbornak) were close on-screen, their real-life relationship wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. According to each of the stars, the duo didn’t always get along when the cameras stopped rolling. Both actresses have spoken about their alleged feud, each with something different to say.
In 2011, White spoke about their issues, noting, “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!”
McClanahan, who had a front-seat view to everything on set, said that White and Arthur’s relationship wasn’t always what it seemed.
“I love both Bea and Betty and got a huge kick out of each of them,” McClanahan wrote in her memoir, My First Five Husbands…And the Ones Who Got Away. “Their relationship with each other wasn’t all I wished it could be, but it never interfered with their work.”
Arthur and White both grew up on sets, but were used to a very different series of rules. Arthur was more accustomed to the theater way of life, while White was used to game shows and television shows, which fostered a very different environment. Allegedly, Arthur didn’t have the patience for the way White did things, like taking time to chat with the studio audience, which cut into filming time.
Bea Arthur’s son says she enjoyed having someone to dislike
In an interview, Arthur’s eldest son, Matthew Saks, whom she had with former husband Gene Saks, spoke about his mother’s behavior.
“My mom unknowingly carried the attitude that it was fun to have somebody to be angry at,” Saks said. “It was almost like Betty became her nemesis; someone she could always roll her eyes about at work.”
White says the four were thick as thieves despite rumors
Even though there were claims of a rift between the stars and they have spoken about an alleged feud, White shared that in the end it was all love between them.
“Knowing how much time and togetherness is involved in making a television series is mind-boggling to think of doing it if you dislike each other!” White wrote. “Bad enough in a dramatic situation…imagine doing comedy in those conditions?!”
The actress emphasized that without the love and respect they had for one another, there wouldn’t have been The Golden Girls we all love.
“I don’t even want to contemplate what the set of The Golden Girls would be like if we didn’t all support and respect one another,” White explained. “The fact that we also happen to be nuts about each other was an added starter which could not have been foreseen when the show was first put together.”
In agreement with her co-star, McClanahan shared that despite rumors, The Golden Girls was a tight-knit group.
McClanahan wrote in her book, “What mattered most to each of us individually and all of us as a group: the chemistry worked. We were damn funny. And we did it together. That’s what counts at the end of the day.”
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