Wheel of Fortune's co-host Vanna White responded to her son Nikko Santo Pietro's sudden heartthrob status after their December 2 Instagram cooking video went viral.
In honor of the game show's "Fabulous Food Week," White, who at 67 continues turning letters on WOF's puzzle board since starting in 1982, was joined by her 30-year-old son, Nikko, in the kitchen to share the creation of her favorite dish, "Uncle Roy’s Chicken" for fans.
However, it wasn't the chicken that left viewers salivating.
Many thought Santo Pietro, with his strapping good looks in a form-fitted white T-shirt and cap, was the main dish.
You can watch him turning up the heat in the kitchen without even trying as he helps Mom with the cooking in the viral video below.
Here are some of the comments from users swooning over him.
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Now that the clip has everyone buzzing about what was really sizzling in front of the camera, White and Santo Pietro addressed all the excitement with ET.
It all started innocently.
White said she suggested she and her son participate in Fabulous Food Week by posting a video featuring them in the kitchen "to help with the show. We did that for fun, and look what happened."
After the "little" project turned into an internet sensation, Santo Pietro recalled White turning to him and asking, "Is this what viral means?"
“Obviously, I had an outpour from her fans just really being kind and saying all kinds of interesting stuff in the comments,” Santo Pietro told the entertainment outlet.
When asked what he would make of all the attention towards him after his mom had been in the spotlight for over four decades, the 30-year-old real estate agent, who has thousands of followers on his social media pages, continued:
“I’ve always loved being in front of the camera, and I work really hard on my social media... that’s a big part of what I do, so it feels natural and good.”
Santo Pietro is not letting all the attention go to his head. He downplayed all the adoration and said:
“People see me as this heartthrob and they’re thirsty for me and all this stuff."
"I love it all, but at the same time, it’s really good to remember the meaningful things in life and just kind of dial it back, doing a lot of charity work, working hard every day.”
He added:
“That’s what it is to me. Making an impact.”
Here's a clip from the ET interview.
Sigh…
Entertainment Tonight/YouTube
Entertainment Tonight/YouTube
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Entertainment Tonight/YouTube
In case anyone was wondering, he's taken.
“I have an amazing girlfriend,” he said of his significant other, named Easae, a singer/songwriter.
“She’s an absolute sweetheart. She’s a singer-songwriter. We’ve been together for a year."
"She wrote a song about me. It’s really sweet that she did that.”
He also joked that she “obviously detected the heartthrob thing before America did.”
You can watch the full interview with ET's Deidre Behar, here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
White shares a son and a daughter with ex-husband George Santo Pietro, a restaurant owner to whom she was married from 1990 to 2002.
Nicholas "Nikko" was born in 1994 and Giovanna "Gigi" was born in 1997.
In a 2007 interview, White told Family Circle that being a mom was her "favorite job."
“Your whole life changes after you have children,” she said. “You never sleep soundly. You always have one eye open. You’re constantly worrying about their safety. But I wouldn’t change a thing."
She added:
"Giovanna and Nicholas have brought so much love and joy into my life—more than I could have ever imagined.”
In September 1992, she announced her first pregnancy with George Santo Pietro through a puzzle on WOF that read, "Vanna's pregnant."
Shortly after the episode aired, she suffered a miscarriage.
She opened up about her experience in an October 2019 interview with People magazine, saying:
"I so wanted to be pregnant and have a baby, so then when I finally got pregnant, I wanted to tell the world immediately.”
"Obviously I lost the baby, which was devastating after announcing it."
"The good news is I was able to get pregnant again and had two beautiful, healthy children … But losing a child—there's nothing good about that," she said.
After divorcing Santo Pietro in November 2002, White was engaged to businessman Michael Kaye from 2004 to 2006, but the two never tied the knot.
Since 2012, she has been in a relationship with contractor John Donaldson, whom she met through mutual friends.
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