What You Didn't Know About Vanna White's Boyfriend

It appears Wheel of Fortune's golden girl Vanna White has finally spun a W... in love that is! Enter John Donaldson: White's serious boyfriend since 2012. As reported by Closer Weekly, the pair met almost a decade ago when they were brought together by mutual friends. Donaldson, a contractor, and White, the reigning game show queen, immediately hit it off and became an item not too long after.

"He is kind, understanding and lets me be me," White gushed about her man during an interview with Closer Weekly. "Today, I am happy just the way things are. The biggest surprise to my fans is probably how simple I live in real life."

But it hasn't always been rainbows and sunshine for the television personality. She dealt with tremendous heartache before finally finding her happiness with her current beau. Keep reading after the jump to learn about the heartache White has endured before finally meeting her special person.

Tragedy struck for game show beauty Vanna White in 1986 when her fiancé and soap opera actor, John Gibson, was killed in a plane crash, per Closer Weekly. White spoke candidly about the heartache she endured in an interview with Closer Weekly in 2017. "It was devastating," she revealed. "But I got such an outpouring of fan mail, and it really did help to know that I wasn't alone."

White went on to marry George Santo Pietro in 1990, but the marriage sadly wrapped 12 years later in 2002. During that time however, they had two children: Nikko Santo Pietro and Gigi Santo Pietro.  White was also briefly engaged to California entrepreneur, Michael Kaye, in 2004. The couple later broke off their engagement and called off the wedding in 2006.

But now that White has found love with John Donaldson, it appears she's in no rush to get married or even engaged. "We've been together for eight years, and it seems to be working [because] we're both happy, so in my eyes, I feel — in both of our eyes — we feel married," White confessed to Closer Weekly in 2019. "So I don't think you necessarily have to have a piece of paper, unless you want to. Everybody's different, so for each his own."