Betty White Is Victim of Death Hoax After Fans Misread Satirical Story About 92-Year-Old's Dye Job

The story read, "Actress Betty White, 92, Dyes Peacefully In Her Los Angeles Home," and many didn't realize that the writer used a homonym for dies

By Bruna Nessif Sep 04, 2014 2:16 AMTags
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OK, guys, quick English lesson: Dies refers to death, dyes (with a "y") refers to changing the color of one's hair.

Now that we have all of that squared away, we can tell you about the interesting death hoax that got Betty White fans all riled up and ready to mourn her (fake) passing. The 92-year-old is alive and well, but a satirical article on Empire News sparked rumors that the world lost the witty actress after readers misconstrued a little wordplay in the headline.

The story read, "Actress Betty White, 92, Dyes Peacefully In Her Los Angeles Home," and many didn't realize that the writer used a homophone for dies.

Clearly, fans didn't continue reading the article, because the entire thing was a tongue-in-cheek "interview" with the star's agent about how White's not a natural blond, along with purported quotes from Betty, herself, about her brunette to blond transformation.

"Oh, I started dying it ages ago when my color started to fade away to a more whiteish, greyish color," White supposedly said. "I thought to myself, ‘Well Betty, if you can't have the dark color anymore, might as well try on the blonde for a while,' and it just kind of stuck. When I played Rose on Girls, the joke about my natural hair color made it into several episodes. I've always had a sense of humor about it."

White's agent, Jeff Witjas, assured the Los Angeles Times that the actress was alive and well. "She is on the set shooting Hot in Cleveland right now," he said.