The Golden Girls let audiences fall in love with imaginary pals, but the reality was far more difficult.

On June 18, writers, producers, and others involved in the series convened at NeueHouse Hollywood as part of the Pride LIVE! Hollywood event, which runs all month. The panel commemorated the show’s forthcoming 40th anniversary. The show aired from 1985 to 1992 and starred Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo.

During the panel, co-producer Marsha Posner Williams brought up one of the show’s long-running dramas: the purported feud between Arthur, who died in 2009 at the age of 86, and White, who died in 2019 just days before turning 100.

“When that red light was on [and the show was filming], there were no more professional people than those women, but when the red light was off, those two couldn’t warm up to each other if they were cremated together,” Williams tells The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Williams, Arthur frequently referred to White as the c-word. “[She] would phone me at home and say, ‘I just ran into that person in the grocery store. I’m going to write her a letter,” and I replied, “Bea, get over it for crying out loud.” “Just get through it.” (Sally Struthers stated as much in her own explosive interview regarding White earlier this year.)

And the usage of the c-word wasn’t an isolated incident. “My husband and I went to Bea’s place for supper a few times. The c-word came out within 30 seconds of walking through the door,” Williams added. Casting director Joel Thurm said that Arthur also referred to White as such.

The panelists offered several views about why the women didn’t get along. Co-producer Jim Vallely believed it was because White, who had gained millions of fans for her portrayal as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, garnered greater applause during live tapings, but Williams stated Arthur despised attention and didn’t care about it. She also remembers how Arthur “hated” it when White would “break character” in the middle of a tape and address the live audience.

Williams believed that Arthur was the primary reason for the disbandment of The Golden Girls. “The show would have continued after seven years,” she informed me. “Their contracts were up, and… The executives approached the ladies, and Estelle, Rue, and Betty all agreed, ‘Yes, let’s keep going. And Bea responded, ‘No f—— way,’ which is why the program did not continue.” White, Getty, and McClanahan resumed the series with the ill-fated spin-off The Golden Palace.

Stan Zimmerman, a TV writer who worked on the series, stated in his book The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore in 2024 that he was unaware of the supposed conflicts between the two actresses. “During our time on set, I never felt tension between the two,” he said. “I merely listened to tales and recently discovered, via a podcast with producer Marsha Posner Williams, that Bea believed Betty was deceitful.”

“Bea liked real people,” he wrote. “Betty reminded me more of Sue Ann Nivens, the role she played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, than Rose. “More cunning than the innocent airhead from St. Olaf.”

Williams told Broadcast Beat in 2022 that “Bea Arthur despised Betty White.” She stated of Arthur, who had previously been on Maude, “Bea was precisely who she was. She despised wearing makeup. She loathed wearing shoes. She despised washing her hair. She found no joy in physical contact. She consumed a lot of vodka. That is who she was. But when you want a successful show to continue, you have to be nice, which they were.”

Arthur’s son Matthew Saks told Closer in 2017 that his mother disliked White’s comments to the crowd, explaining, “It wasn’t jealousy. It was a focus thing.”

He continued, “My mom thought it was good to have someone to be mad at. It was almost as if Betty had become her adversary, someone she could constantly look down on at work.”

At a 2011 event, White said of Arthur, “She wasn’t that fond of me.” The Village Voice reported that she occasionally found me annoying. She cited her “positive attitude.”