Betty White’s cause of death has been revealed.
According to the death certificate, White suffered a stroke six days before her death.
A source tells PEOPLE “It was a mild stroke. She died peacefully in her sleep.”
White’s longtime agent and friend Jeff Witjas also tells PEOPLE: “Betty passed in her sleep peacefully without pain. To me this is the most important thing and brings me comfort as her dear friend. Anything else is private to Betty.”
Betty White.getty
White’s agent and close friend Jeff Witjas firstconfirmed to PEOPLEin a statement on Dec. 31 that the beloved actress “died peacefully in her sleep at her home” that morning.
“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” Witjas said. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her mostbeloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”
Days later, Witjas spoke out again and deniedfalse social media claimsthat the actress died due to effects related to a COVID-19 booster shotadministered on Dec. 28.
“People are saying her death was related to getting a booster shot three days earlier but that is not true,” Witjas said in a statement to PEOPLE on Jan. 3. “She died of natural causes. Her death should not be politicized — that is not the life she lived.”
Betty White and Jeff Witjas.Vivien Killilea/Getty
White, who was preparing to celebrate her 100th birthday on Jan. 17, recentlyopened upto PEOPLE about her feelings about the milestone occasion.
“I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” she said at the time. “It’s amazing.”
In 2012, White said she had “no fear or dread of death” in aTimesTalks conversationwithNew York Timescolumnist Frank Bruni. She credited her mother’s approach for impacting her view of the subject, adding that she was “happy as a lark to stay around as long as I can.”
“My mother had awonderful approach to death,” White told Bruni. “She always thought of it as — she said, ‘We know we have managed to find out almost anything that exists, but nobody knows … what happens at that moment when it’s over.’ "
“And she said, ‘It’s the one secret that we don’t know.’ So whenever we would lose somebody very close and very dear, she would always say, ‘Well, now he knows the secret.’ And it took the curse off of it somehow.”
On Friday, Witjas told PEOPLE thatshe knew of the love fans hadfor her during her finals days, adding that he would remind her of it “often.”
“Betty lived a great life and she lived a life that she chose,” he added. “She was happy. Every time I told her, ‘Betty, you’re loved,’ she would look at me with a wry smile and say, ‘Really?’ I hope she knew. I think she did. It was something beyond love.”
source: people.com
