FACT CHECK: Do These Pictures Show Betty White In Her 20s?

Hannah Hudnall | Fact Check Reporter

A collage of images shared on Facebook over 3,000 times purportedly shows the late actress Betty White in her 20s.

Verdict: False

While the top left photo depicts White in 1988, the other two feature model Betty Brosmer, not White.

Fact Check:

White, a renowned actress known for her roles in TV shows like “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died at her California home on Dec. 31 just weeks short of her 100th birthday, according to Rolling Stone. Her agent, Jeff Witjas, told People Magazine she died of natural causes.

Soon after her death, a Facebook user shared a collage of photos with the caption, “Betty White in her 20’s.” The post features a photo of White alongside two black-and-white pictures of a young, blonde woman. (RELATED: Did Betty White Encourage People To ‘Eat Healthy And Get All Your Vaccines’ Days Before Her Death?)

A reverse image search reveals the photo on the top left, the only non-black-and-white photo included in the collage, was taken by photographer Alan Light at the 1988 Emmy Awards and can be found on his official Flickr account. Light identifies the woman pictured as White.

The two other images, however, are not of White. Using a reverse image search, Check Your Fact identified the woman in those photos as model Betty Brosmer, well-known for her pin-up modeling work during the 1950s, according to IMDb. The photo on the right, showing the blonde-haired woman posing in a doorway, can be found on bettybrosmer.com, while the photo of the woman posing in a kitchen can be seen in an article published by Pulp International. In both cases, the woman is identified as Brosmer.

Genuine photos of White from the 1950s, in which she looks noticeably different from the woman pictured in the Facebook post’s black-and-white photos, can be found on Glamour.com. In those photos, White has dark, short hair and different facial features from Brosmer.

Hannah Hudnall

Fact Check Reporter

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