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Hot in Cleveland's Betty White 'Gays love old ladies'

By April MacIntyre Oct 29, 2010, 6:45 GMT

09/22/2010 - Betty White - "You Again" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals - El Capitan Theatre - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Amanda Meredith / PR Photos

Betty White is adored by the gay community, and she loves them back.

In an  interview with this Sunday’s issue of PARADE, Ms. Betty White, America’s favorite 88-year-old, talks about enjoying the opposite sex, the difficulties of pursuing older men, her love of animals and Cadillacs, and more!

On being perceived as a cougar:

“I’ve always liked older men. They’re just more attractive to me. Of course, at my age there aren’t that many left!”  Apparently, that hasn’t presented much of an obstacle. “I’ve enjoyed the opposite sex a lot,” says White, whose beloved husband of 18 years, Allen Ludden, died in 1981. “Always have. Always will.”

On her parents love of humor, and animals:

“They had delicious senses of humor,” White says of her parents. Her father was a traveling salesman who would bring home jokes from the road. He and her mother were also animal people. “They would come back from a walk with a dog, saying, ‘Betty, he followed us home. Can we keep him?’ My parents had a cat named Toby who liked to sit on my crib. My mom always said that if Toby hadn’t approved of the baby, she’d have gone straight back to the hospital.”

On equal rights for all:

White’s status as a gay icon dates to the mid-80’s popularity of The Golden Girls. “Gays love old ladies,” she says. “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with. If a couple has been together all that time—and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones—I think it’s fine if they want to get married. I don’t know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.”