--- title: Vanna White Says She Still Regrets Her Playboy Cover description: Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White said she still regrets posing for the pictures that landed her on the cover of Playboy in 1987 canonical: https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/ author: Zamira Rahim article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T16:11:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:18.942Z og:title: Vanna White on Her Playboy Cover: "I Did Something I Shouldn’t Have Done" og:description: She said Hugh Hefner bought the photos after she became famous og:url: https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf54e0c9de1131ae7/6988c098fb4eac30d989151c/gettyimages-180447923.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2700 og:image:height: 1519 og:image:alt: Vanna White, who has been turning letters on the Wheel of Fortune for 30 years, in action in Las Vegas, NV. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vanna White on Her Playboy Cover: "I Did Something I Shouldn’t Have Done" twitter:description: She said Hugh Hefner bought the photos after she became famous twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf54e0c9de1131ae7/6988c098fb4eac30d989151c/gettyimages-180447923.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vanna White on Her _Playboy_ Cover: 'I Did Something I Shouldn’t Have Done' > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=4e566f7b-bc3a-4032-947e-af044aa70a10&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 30, 2017 4:11 PM UTC  Vanna White walks onstage on July, 30, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV Vanna White walks onstage on July, 30, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post—Getty Images by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 30, 2017 4:11 PM UTC Looking back on her decades in show business, [_Wheel of Fortune_](http://time.com/4710905/wheel-of-fortune-kevin-streetcar-named-desire/?iid=sr-link1)hostess [Vanna White](http://time.com/76710/wheel-of-fortune-vanna-white-6000/) said one thing she still regrets is posing for a lingerie shoot that landed her on the cover of _Playboy._ White opened up about how the photos, which were published in 1987, generated instant controversy and nearly caused her to lose her job as the letter turner on the game show — a title she’s now held for more than three decades. “I said, ‘I made a mistake, I’m sorry and I just hope I don’t lose my job over it,'” she said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News. “Fortunately, I didn’t. I could have, you know? I did something I shouldn’t have done.” She explained that she posed for the cheeky photos, which show her leaning out of a window in a long-sleeved top and no pants, back in 1982 — shortly before she got the gig on _Wheel of Fortune_ that same year. “When I first moved to Hollywood, I was too embarrassed to ask my dad for rent money,” White said. “So, I did these lingerie shots and from the moment I said I would do them, I thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m not going to ask my dad for money, so I’m just going to do it!’ Once I got _Wheel of Fortune_ and some fame, Hugh Hefner then bought those pictures.” White sued both _Playboy_ and Hefner in an attempt to minimize the cover’s impact on her image, according to [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/30/i-shouldnt-have-at-60-vanna-white-reflects-on-her-1987-playboy-cover-that-inspired-two-lawsuits/?utm%5Fterm=.4318eb3d4710). Both suits were eventually dropped. The 60-year-old host said she still enjoys her job and hopes to “continue doing it for as long as I can.” But even after 35 years on the show, she’s still not sure what has contributed to its long-term success. “It’s just one of those things that every once in a while, everything falls into place,” she told Fox. “It’s just a half hour of family fun with no bad news.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/"},"headline":"Vanna White on Her Playboy Cover: 'I Did Something I Shouldn’t Have Done'","datePublished":"2017-03-30T16:11:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:18.942Z","description":"She said Hugh Hefner bought the photos after she became famous","url":"https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/","keywords":["motto","Television","sexism","Playboy","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf54e0c9de1131ae7/6988c098fb4eac30d989151c/gettyimages-180447923.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zamira Rahim","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf54e0c9de1131ae7/6988c098fb4eac30d989151c/gettyimages-180447923.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Vanna White, who has been turning letters on the Wheel of Fortune for 30 years, in action in Las Vegas, NV.","caption":"Vanna White, who has been turning letters on the Wheel of Fortune for 30 years, in action in Las Vegas, NV.","creditText":"Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4718534/vanna-white-playboy-cover/","name":"Vanna White on Her Playboy Cover: 'I Did Something I Shouldn’t Have Done'"}}]}] ```