Vanna White Net worth: Vanna White is an American television personality, model and actress best known as the host and puzzle board spinner of Wheel of Fortune. Vanna White has a net worth of $70 million. Interestingly, that actually makes her a little richer than her Wheel co-host Pat Sajak. Her additional net worth comes from her previous marriage to a very successful real estate developer and restorer named George Santo Pietro.
Personal Life: Vanna Marie Rosich was born on February 18, 1957 near North Myrtle Beach in Conway, South Carolina. She is the daughter of Joan and Miguel Rosich. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler. She was raised by her mother and stepfather Herbert White Jr. in North Myrtle Beach. Vanna took her stepfather’s surname. After graduating high school, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the Atlanta School of Fashion and Design. She also worked at a model. White was a 1978 Miss Georgia USA contestant. In 1979, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She briefly returned to South Carolina in the summer of 1980 when her mother died of ovarian cancer. On June 18, 1980, Vanna was a contestant on the game show The Price is Right.
< In 1980, White shot footage for an incomplete film; this was subsequently edited and released in June 1990 as Gypsy Angels. In 1981, she landed a small role in the film Looker and also appeared in the horror film Graduation Day, an American slasher film, in which she played the character of Doris. In October 1982, White was hired as one of three backup hostesses for Wheel of Fortune after then-hostess Susan Stafford left the show. White became the series’ regular hostess on December 13, 1982, and has remained the series’ main hostess ever since. White also co-hosts the evening version of the show with Pat Sajak.
Her 1987 autobiography, Vanna Speaks! , was a bestseller. That same year, she was featured in a Playboy photo book that featured photos of her before her Wheel of Fortune career.
In 1988, she appeared in the NBC television movie Goddess of Love, playing Venus. She has had cameo appearances on television shows such as LA Law, 227, Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Simon and Simon, The King of Queens and Full House; and in films such as Naked Gun 33⅓: The Last Insult (1994) and Double Dragon (1994).
(Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
Personal Life: White dated Playgirl centerfold/Chippendales dancer-turned-actor John Gibson in the 1980s and they eventually got engaged. In 1986, Gibson died in a plane crash.
Vanna married restaurant owner George Santo Pietro in December 1990. Santo Pietro was born into a wealthy family in Beverly Hills. In the early 1980s he opened his first restaurant, the aptly named Santa Pietro’s. A successful sushi restaurant called Sushi-Ko followed, which became a celebrity hot spot. White became pregnant in September 1992 and announced her pregnancy on an episode of Wheel of Fortune in which “Vanna is pregnant” was the answer to a riddle. Shortly after the episode was taped, she miscarried. In 1994, White had a son, Nicholas, born in 1994, and a daughter, Giovanna (Gigi), born in 1997, from her marriage to Santo Pietro. The couple divorced in November 2002.
From 2004 to 2006, she was engaged to businessman Michael Kaye, a senior partner in a large Southern California-based leveraged buyout fund. The two never married.
When she was five years old, her grandmother taught her to crochet, a hobby she still practices today. She is best known for her yarn line called “Vanna’s Choice” through Lion Brand Yarns.
On May 24, 2013, White was presented with a Guinness World Records certificate for “Most Common Clapper” on the episode of Wheel of Fortune. As of January 31, 2013, it was estimated that she had clapped at least 3,480,864 times over the show’s 30 seasons. By that time, she had appeared in all but 10 of Wheel’s 5,754 episodes, during the series’ modern syndicated run, which began September 19, 1983. That works out to an average of 606 claps per series.
White is a patron of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, donates $1.8 million to the program, and plans to continue her philanthropic work after retiring from television.
<Vanna White’s salary is $10 million a year. For comparison, Pat Sajak’s salary is $15 million. That equates to 48 working days per year to make $10 or $15 million per year. That means Vanna earns $208,333 per day worked. Pat earns $312,500 per day worked. With a per show breakdown, Pat Sajak earns $52,083 per show and Vanna White earns $34,722 per show. Wheel of Fortune records four days a month and six shows a day. They record two Thursdays and two Fridays. On the recording days both arrive around 8.30am and start filming at noon. An audience watches three programs, then there is a lunch break. A second audience comes in to see three more takes.
Real Estate: At one point, George Santo Pietro and Vanna lived in a gated community
called The Mulholland Estates. They lived next door to Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. Eventually, they built a 15,000 square foot custom home in the Beverly Park gated community. The couple lived in the home until their divorce in 2002. After their divorce, they both vacated the property and rented it for $175,000 a month for several years. In 2017, they put the house up for sale for $47.5 million. They also owned a home on a nearby lot that sold for $22 million.
White uses her income to invest in apartment buildings and she enjoys flipping houses.
Her longtime primary residence was a 10,000-square-foot mansion in the hills above Beverly Hills, which she purchased for $3.4 million in the early 2000s. Today, that home is probably worth more than $10 million.
In 2013, Vanna paid $1.125 million for a home in Sherman Oaks, California. She listed this home for rent in May 2020 for $20,000 a month.
| Assets: | $70 million |
| Salary: | $10 million |
| Birth date: | February 18, 1957 (63 years old) |
| Gender: | Feminine |
| Height: | 5ft 5in (1.67m) |
| Job: | Chairman, Actor |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Last updated: | 2020 |
