And Now Your Friday Downer: No 'Golden Girls' Made It To Estelle Getty's Funeral
Uh-oh—don't let that crying kid on YouTube see this, lest we prepare for a tsunami of waterworks that could very well short-out the entire internet: None of the surviving Golden Girls showed up to Estelle Getty's funeral. Not even her own daughter. Inside Edition tracked down two of the three to find out where they were:
Bea Arthur, who played Estelle Getty’s daughter on the show, tells INSIDE EDITION she’s been grieving for years over Getty’s long decline due to dementia, and could not deal with the emotion of a funeral.
Arthur: “She’s been out of it so many years, not recognizing anyone. It’s a Godsend. She’s at peace.”
Rue McClanahan, Getty’s former Golden Girls co-star who is living in New York, tells INSIDE EDITION that she couldn’t attend the funeral because she recently had surgery.
McClanahan: “I’d like them to know that I didn’t {attend the funeral} because I can’t fly right now with knee surgery. I don’t know why Betty and Bea didn’t go, maybe because they, too, have said their goodbyes to her when she was alive.”
For those keeping track, that leaves the whereabouts of dotty Rose Nylund—aka Bette White—unaccounted for, but once she's gotten a hold of, we're certain she'll have a delightful story about an ancient Viking funeral custom carried over into modern St. Olaf culture that requires you to skip your fellow warrior's services in favor of a cat-neutering rally in the Valley.