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- Pat Sajak is best known as the host of ‘Wheel of Fortune.’
- He is married to Lesly Brown.
- He was previously married to Sherrill Sajak.
Pat Sajak, 76, is best known as the longtime host of Wheel of Fortune. He’s had the job since 1981 and co-hosts with Vanna White, who joined the show the following year. Pat has won three Emmy Awards for his hosting performance for over 40 seasons (and counting!) of the show. Although there’s been no word on if/when the show will end, Pat recently sparked retirement rumors when he said his time on the show is “near the end,” in an interview.
“We’re getting near the end,” Pat told Entertainment Tonight in September 2022. “It’s been a long [time]. We’re not gonna do this for another 40 years. The end is near. It’s an honor to have been in people’s living rooms for that long. We’re happy and proud.”
Outside of his career, Pat is proud to be married to his wife of over 30 years, Lesly Brown. Pat’s first marriage to Sherrill Sajak didn’t work out, but the second time was the charm for the game show host. Pat and Lesly have such a wonderful marriage that keeps getting better as the years go on. Here’s everything you need to know about Lesly, as well as Pat’s first wife Sherrill.
Pat and Lesly were introduced by a mutual friend at a restaurant opening in Irvine, California in 1988. Pat was 42 and Lesly was 23 at the time. They met two years after Pat got divorced from his first wife. Pat was clearly ready for a new relationship and he fell in love with Lesly right away!
Pat and Lesly moved fast at the start of their relationship. They tied the knot in 1989, just one year after they met. The old-fashioned wedding ceremony was held at church in Annapolis, Maryland, followed by the reception which Lesly’s parents hosted at their home nearby. The couple enjoyed a short honeymoon in the Caribbean before Pat had to get back to work on Wheel of Fortune.
Pat and Lesly welcomed their first child, son Patrick, on September 22, 1990. Their daughter Maggie was born on January 5, 1995. Maggie is a famous country music singer. Both of Pat’s kids made cameo appearances on Wheel of Fortune when they were younger. While Pat was absent from the show during Season 37 due to health issues, Maggie joined Vanna on stage as the guest letter-turner for the episode. She also appeared on the show in May 2023, when Vanna participated in a special Ultimate Host Night round of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.”
Lesly works as a professional photographer. Before she met Pat, she studied television production at the University of Maryland and graduated in 1986. She was also featured in Playboy and was named “Miss Georgetown.” Like her children, Lesly has made occasional appearances on Wheel of Fortune. Pat even gave his wife a sweet shoutout on the show in honor of her birthday on April 21, 2021.
Lesly was by Pat’s side when he ended up in the hospital in 2019. Pat had a blocked intestine and was heavily medicated while he was being treated by doctors. “In the background [at the hospital], I could hear my wife and daughter talking,” Pat told Good Morning America in December 2019. “It sounded like they were a mile off, but they were right next to me! They were talking to each other. And I remember thinking, not in a morbid way, ‘I think this must be death. This must be what death is like.’ Hearing their voices, I thought, ‘Boy, their lives are gonna change now.’ And I felt badly for them,” he added. “I didn’t feel badly about dying. I felt badly that they were gonna have to deal with the aftermath. As it turned out, I was just high.”
Pat met his first wife, Sherrill Sajak, in 1978. They got married in 1979 and divorced in 1986. Pat and Sherrill didn’t have any children while they were together. It’s unclear if Sherrill got married again and built a family of her own after she and Pat went their separate ways.
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