Vanna White stepping in for Pat Sajak as Wheel Of Fortune host recovers from emergency surgery

Vanna White is temporarily stepping in for Wheel Of Fortune host Pat Sajak as he recuperates from emergency surgery.

Pat, 73, who has been hosting the show since 1981, had a blocked intestine and will likely be all right, according to the show’s Twitter.

‘Our taping on Thursday was canceled because host Pat Sajak underwent successful emergency surgery to correct a blocked intestine,’ the tweet began.

‘He is resting comfortably and looking forward to getting back to work. Taping resumed today as scheduled and Vanna White has stepped in as host.’

Two years after making her game show debut as a The Price Is Right contestant, Vanna, now 62, joined Wheel Of Fortune as hostess in 1982.

This year she told Fox News: ‘Believe it or not, Pat Sajak and I have only had one argument in 36 years and that was over putting ketchup on a hotdog.’

Still going strong: Pat and Vanna are pictured together in a recent publicity shot for the program, which aired its 7,000th episode this May

While Pat prefers just mustard on his sausage, Vanna likes to pair that condiment with ketchup, resulting in their spat.

Talk show icon Merv Griffin created Wheel Of Fortune in 1975, with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford in the roles now held by Pat and Vanna. 

Susan explained her 1982 departure to the Chicago Tribune a half a decade later: ‘I mean, for seven years I stood there and turned letters. I had to ask myself if that was any way for a grown woman to live her life.’

Iconic duo: Two years after making her game show debut as a The Price Is Right contestant, Vanna joined Wheel Of Fortune as hostess in 1982; she is pictured with Pat in the 1990s

In 1986 she briefly stepped in for Vanna after the latter’s fiance John Gibson, who had been a Playgirl centerfold and Chippendale, died tragically in a plane crash.

Wheel Of Fortune made Vanna a small screen icon and her 1987 memoir Vanna Speaks! was a smash, earning a famous shout-out on The Golden Girls.

Bea Arthur’s character Dorothy recommends two books to a Czech visitor after the fall of communism, to bette rhelp the new arrival understand America  – Common Sense by Thomas Paine and Vanna Speaks!, which is ‘just a hell of a book.’