Update: A rep for Ms. White tells HollywoodLife that she is “alive and very well.”
Original: “Yearly tradition of Facebook making my mom think Betty White died,” one fan tweeted on Nov. 8, summing up the frustration fans felt after another report claimed that the 97-year-old actress had passed away. Supposedly, the website EmpireNews.net posted a story titled, “Actress Betty White, 93, Dyes Peacefully In Her Los Angeles Home.” Despite the screenshot being four years old(?), some fans were horrified to think Betty had died. Then, they were furious at being fooled again. “False alarm over Betty White’s death has genuinely made me light-headed. Protect her. Do not make me hurt like this unnecessarily,” tweeted @Alexanasta_.
“I got on Twitter to verify if Betty White truly left us. It is with great pleasure that I report she has not! Don’t try me like that again. *resumes watching Golden Girls*” tweeted @Ariel_CWilliams. The reaction was pretty much the same across the social media platform. “I know MFs not out here trying to kill badass Betty White! 👊🏻 Faux News!” “Saw a hoax about Betty White passing away & it almost broke my heart.” “Aye mane stop playing with Betty White like that! Y’all had me scared of a min.” “Why would anyone make up that Betty White had died. So glad it’s not true.”
Ignoring the obvious typo in the headline (“dyes”) in the screenshot being passed around, and how the story has her age wrong, EmpireNews.net has been deemed “fake” by CBS News. “A disclaimer on the site reads: ‘Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figures and celebrity parody or satirization.’” So, it’s basically a troll playground, brewing those articles that make social media users freak out. HollywoodLife has reached out to Ms. White’s reps to confirm that she’s still with us, and will update this post with any update when available.
Is she tie dying a blouse? If you're going to try to misleadingly kill off legend Betty White, learn to spell mate. #bettywhite #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/iU10JJTeWt
— Antoinette Lattouf (@antoinette_news) November 9, 2019
I got on Twitter to verify if Betty White truly left us. It is with great pleasure that I report she has not! Don't try me like that again. *resumes watching Golden Girls*
— Ariel C. Williams (@Ariel_CWilliams) November 9, 2019
Betty had her 97th birthday on January 17, and with her stamina, she will likely see 98. She reportedly celebrated the big 97 by playing poker with her friends, according to TMZ. At the time, Betty was feeling great “and happy as ever.” She was spotted out and about in Beverly Hills before her birthday, looking spry and joyous.
So, what’s the secret to Betty’s longevity? Vodka and hot dogs, “probably in that order,” she told Parade magazine in 2018. She also had this advice: “Enjoy life. Accentuate the positive, not the negative. It sounds so trite, but a lot of people will pick out something to complain about, rather than say, ‘Hey, that was great!’ It’s not hard to find great stuff if you look.”