Betty White's Death Not Linked To COVID Booster Shot, Agent Says

LOS ANGELES, CA — Betty White's New's Year's Eve death at age 99 had nothing to do with a COVID-19 booster shot despite false rumors spreading on social media, her agent confirmed Monday.

The rumor appears to stem from a fabricated quote attributed to White saying she had just received her booster shot three days before she died. The fake quote was widely distributed on anti-vaccine memes almost as soon as news of the icon's death spread. White did not get a COVID-19 booster shot in the days before her death, according to Jeff Witjas, White's agent and longtime friend.

"A booster shot had nothing to do with BETTY'S passing….100%," Witjas wrote in an email to Patch. "These are the times that we live in……Making up stories that have no basis in fact."

In fact, White died peacefully, and she spoke her late husband's name before she died, reports stated.

"Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home. 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 magazine. "She died of natural causes. Her death should not be politicized — that is not the life she lived."

White died just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday, in her Brentwood home in the 500 block of North Carmelina Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. A death investigation unit responded to the home around 9:30 a.m. Friday and reported that she died of natural causes.

Witjas told the New York Daily News was fearless in life and in death.

“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much," he said. "I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband, Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

White was a TV star for seven decades and is best known for her Emmy- winning roles on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls." She was also known as an animal advocate.

On Friday afternoon, flowers were placed on White's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6747 Hollywood Blvd. Her star is next to that of Ludden, her late husband and the former host of the game show "Password."

City News Service contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Hollywood Patch