Betty White’s home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood has, as expected, been torn down after it sold in June for a staggering $10.678 million.
The Golden Girls icon died last New Year’s Eve at her other home in the picturesque Central California town of Carmel-By-The-Sea, just weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
Her official Instagram, which is now run by her longtime assistant Kiersten Mikelas, revealed this Saturday that the Los Angeles home was demolished.
She first moved into the luxurious Brentwood property in 1968 with her third husband Allen Ludden, whom she was married to until his death in 1981.
Gone: Betty White’s home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood has, as expected, been torn down after it sold in June for a staggering $10.678 million
‘Her Brentwood home is no more’: Her official Instagram, which is now run by her longtime assistant Kiersten Mikelas, revealed this Saturday that the Los Angeles home was demolished
Kiersten broke the news that the house had been torn down by posting an Instagram shot of the lot, where all that was left of the old building was rubble and a fireplace.
‘Hello all! I owe a post (or two) I know. This is such a busy time of year and coming up on the anniversary of Betty’s passing is hitting in ways I hadn’t anticipated,’ she wrote. ‘Her Brentwood home is no more (save the fireplaces which will be gone in short order). I promise a wonderful tribute to our most wonderful lady very soon!!!!’
Spread across 3,029 square foot home, the elegant two-storey house boasted five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a pool and an enviable view of the Getty museum.
Betty moved into the Brentwood house as her marital home with Allen, but held on to it for the four decades between his death and her own.
Dearly departed: The Golden Girls icon died aged 99 last New Year’s Eve at her other home in the picturesque Central California town of Carmel-By-The-Sea; pictured in 2015
Nearly a year on: Kiersten, pictured with Betty, revealed that ‘coming up on the anniversary of Betty’s passing is hitting in ways I hadn’t anticipated’
Her beachfront estate in Carmel sold this April for $10.775 million, nearly $3 million over its asking price, Architectural Digest revealed.
That same month the Brentwood house went on the market with an initial price tag of $10.575 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles property also managed to overshoot expectations, eventually selling in June for what TMZ reported was $10.678 million.
At the time of the sale it was widely reported that the new owners of Betty’s Brentwood home were likely to have it razed and replaced with a new building.
Swank: Spread across 3,029 square foot home, the elegant two-storey house boasted five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a pool and an enviable view of the Getty museum
Details: At the time of the sale it was widely reported that the new owners of Betty’s Brentwood home were likely to have it razed and replaced with a new building
The original home was built in the 1950s, but Betty and Allen only moved into it late the following decade, five years after they tied the knot.
Betty found the ‘love of my life’ in Allen, a game show host with whom she had nearly two decades of happy marriage until his death of stomach cancer in 1981 – just four years before she began starring on The Golden Girls.
She joked to Piers Morgan on CNN that her first two marriages were ‘rehearsals,’ noting that in her time ‘you didn’t sleep with a guy until you married him.’
It took until 1961 for her to meet Allen, who was already hosting the smash hit game show Password in New York City.
Lap of luxury: Her beachfront estate in Carmel (pictured) sold this April for $10.775 million, nearly $3 million over its asking price, Architectural Digest revealed
Offload: That same month the Brentwood house, whose backyard is pictured, went on the market with an initial price tag of $10.575 million, according to the Los Angeles Times
Allen had been left a single father to three children when his first wife Margaret McGloin died of cancer – the very week he and Betty met.
Betty, who was herself a dab hand on the game show circuit, drew Allen’s attention instantly but it took him multiple proposals to wear her down.
They kept working together on the stage as he wooed her, starring together in the plays Critics’ Choice and Janus.
During Critics’ Choice on Cape Cod he proposed for the first time, Betty told the Television Academy, revealing she though he was kidding.
‘A love affair’: Betty moved into the house with her third and last husband Allen Ludden; the duo are pictured on the property in 1972
He proposed again, this time seriously with a diamond ring over dinner, but Betty refused him again as she did not want to leave her career in Los Angeles in order to move to New York where Password required him to stay.
‘When I think of how nuts I was…,’ said Betty in astonishment years later when she thought about how long she waited to marry him.
Allen kept proposing and visiting her in LA, and on Easter 1963 sent her a stuffed bunny with ‘beautiful little diamond and sapphire earrings in its ears.’
The night she got the stuffed animal he rang her up and she finally agreed to marry him, ultimately ‘regretting that year that I wasted saying no. I would’ve given anything to have had it back. It was a love affair. We really had – we missed 18 years by three days but it was still a honeymoon.’
At home: In 1981, four years before The Golden Girls began, Betty lost Allen to stomach cancer when he was only 63; they are pictured at the Brentwood home on Valentine’s Day 1972
Being Mrs. Allen Ludden also left her with three young stepchildren – this after years of avoiding motherhood in order to focus on her career and even ending her second marriage over that husband’s desire for her to become a stay-at-home parent.
Yet she revealed in her memoir that she and the children ‘got along great. So great that they called me ‘Dragon Lady’ lovingly.’
She wrote in the book, which came out in 2011: ‘Even after all these years, we love each other dearly, and I am most proud of the children that this career girl inherited.’
Glamour: ‘When I think of how nuts I was…,’ said Betty in astonishment years later when she thought about how long she waited to marry him; they are pictured in 1973 at the Patsy Awards
Then in 1981, four years before The Golden Girls began, she lost Allen to stomach cancer when he was only 63 years old.
She mined her loss for a Golden Girls episode in which her character Rose Nylund shares the story of the heart attack that took her husband’s life.
The episode’s director Lex Passaris told Closer: ‘Rose tells a story about her husband Charlie’s death, and Betty’s basically talking about Allen.’
He recalled: ‘Betty’s voice kind of cracked and she took a breath and said to me: ‘I’d give anything to have that year of my life back again.”
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