Vanna White Nearly Left ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ With Pat Sajak: “How Can I Stay Without You?”

Pat Sajak‘s final season hosting Wheel of Fortune had his co-host Vanna White considering relinquishing her own post beside the letter board.

In a Wednesday interview with People, White said that after Sajak’s June announcement that he would retire from the show, she considered doing the same.

“Of course it’s a thought,” White said. “It’s like, ‘Well, wait, if you’re leaving, what am I going to do? How can I stay without you?’”

She claimed “it was a very hard decision for [her] to make, because it definitely crossed [her] mind,” but ultimately decided that she was “not ready to retire.”

While she praised Sajak’s replacement, Ryan Seacrest, as “such a nice guy [who] loves what he does” and shared that she’s “looking forward to working with him” when he takes over for Sajak next season, she noted that “it will be different.”

 “I think it’s going to be good,” White said in reference to her upcoming partnership with Seacrest. “He’s such a nice guy and he loves what he does. He said, ‘Look, I am not replacing Pat. I’m not going in to try to fill Pat’s shoes. No one can ever replace him.’ He says he’s coming in to do a good job and to keep the show going, and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

White recently told E! News that she has become “very attached” to Sajak over the course of their 41 years working together.

She reiterated this notion to People, explaining that she “know[s] everything about him” and “he knows everything about [her].”

“I can tell when he’s walking up the stairs,” she continued. “Our dressing rooms are on the second floor. I can hear in his footsteps when he is walking up the steps, if he’s going to be in a good mood or not. Forty-one years together, you know each other so well. It definitely is bittersweet, but he’s decided to retire and I have to accept that.”

Nonetheless, White said that Sajak will be going out in style on WoF.

“We are celebrating this year with Pat and all the good times, all the 41 years, all the memories,” she said. “We are going to be doing some incredible stuff to say goodbye to Pat at the end of the season. We have almost a whole season to do that, to just look at all the great things that we’ve done together.”

Wheel of Fortune airs on weeknights at 7:30/6:30c. Check out your local listings on the Wheel of Fortune website.