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Betty White Shares the Sweet Reason Why She Never Remarried

At the age of 95, Betty White has countless accomplishments to her name–including famous roles in The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But of all her successes to date, the Hollywood actress claims that her marriage to Allen Luden is the one most near and dear to her heart.

Luden, who had been married to Betty for 18 years, tragically passed away from stomach cancer in 1981. When asked if she would ever remarry again, the actress had the best response: “Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?” she said in an interview with Larry King.

How sweet!

Confirming her sentiments, she told Piers Morgan shortly after Luden’s passing that her first two marriages were simply practice for the real thing.

“I had 18 wonderful years with Allen Ludden,” she said. “The first two were…rehearsals.”

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Betty, who had been married to U.S. Army pilot Dick Barker in 1945 and Hollywood agent Lane Allen from 1947 until 1949, first met Luden when she appeared as a guest on his TV game show Password in 1961. But it wasn’t quite love at first sight for the couple. In fact, Luden proposed to Betty twice before she finally accepted, and in 1963, they finally tied the knot. While the actress was deeply happy with her late husband, she admitted to Oprah that her original reluctance to accept his offer is her greatest regret in life.

“I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year, that Allen and I could have had together, saying no, I wouldn’t marry him. ‘No, I won’t. No, I won’t leave California. No, I won’t move to New York.’ I wasted a whole year we could have had together. But we made it. We finally did.”

What a heartwarming testament of true love! We wish you all the happiness in the world, Betty.

h/t Pop Sugar

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