Vanna White Reveals She Considered Leaving Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak: ‘A Very Hard Decision’ (Exclusive)

White tells PEOPLE that stepping away from the game “definitely crossed my mind” after Sajak announced his departure in June

Vanna White and Pat Sajak on ‘Wheel of Fortune’. Credit :Ricky Middlesworth/ABC via Getty

For more than four decades, viewers have seen Pat Sajak and Vanna White every time they turned on Wheel of Fortune.

But in June, Sajak, 76, announced that the current 44th season would be his last. White, 66, is set to stay on through the 2025-26 season when new host Ryan Seacrest steps in.

White tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, though, that she stopped to consider her future with the show when Sajak announced his departure.

“Of course it’s a thought,” White says. “It’s like, ‘Well, wait, if you’re leaving, what am I going to do? How can I stay without you?’ It was a very hard decision for me to make, because it definitely crossed my mind. It’s like, ‘I just don’t know if I can do this without you,’ but I thought about it and I’m not ready to retire, so I am staying on.”

Still though, White thinks “it will be different” when Seacrest, 48, takes over for Sajak.

“I know Ryan — he is professional, he’s good at what he does, he’s kind,” White says. “I think it’s going to be good. He’s such a nice guy and he loves what he does. He said, ‘Look, I am not replacing Pat. I’m not going in to try to fill Pat’s shoes. No one can ever replace him.’ He says he’s coming in to do a good job and to keep the show going, and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Vanna White photographed at her home in Beverly Hills, California.Sami Drasin

For now, White wants to focus on celebrating Sajak’s final season — which she says will be a bittersweet one.

“We are celebrating this year with Pat and all the good times, all the 41 years, all the memories,” the South Carolina native says. “We are going to be doing some incredible stuff to say goodbye to Pat at the end of the season. We have almost a whole season to do that, to just look at all the great things that we’ve done together. I’m so looking forward to that. It’s going to be very sad.”

For more on Vanna White, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

White adds that she and Sajak “get along tremendously, so I am so going to miss him.”

“I mean, I know everything about him,” she continues. “He knows everything about me. I can tell when he’s walking up the stairs. Our dressing rooms are on the second floor. I can hear in his footsteps when he is walking up the steps, if he’s going to be in a good mood or not. Forty-one years together, you know each other so well. It definitely is bittersweet, but he’s decided to retire and I have to accept that.”

Vanna White and Pat Sajak.Ricky Middlesworth/ABC via Getty

With more Wheel of Fortune episodes ahead of her, White calls “being on TV for so long and hopefully giving people a good feeling” her greatest accomplishment so far.

“There’s so much negative stuff out there,” she says. “I feel like I just want to give people a good feeling and if everybody could be at peace, and be happy, and be kind to each other, that’s been the most proudest for me being on TV, to be able to try to spread that good feeling.”

Wheel of Fortune airs weekdays at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.