Betty White death: Ryan Reynolds pays tribute to former co-star hours after responding to her joke about their ‘past relationship’

‘Betty White was 100 in my heart. She made it a century and kicked a** the whole way. Rip to a legend’

Actor Ryan Reynolds has praised Betty White following her death at the age of 99.

“The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret,” Mr Reynolds tweeted on Friday.

Ms White had recently joked to People magazine that Mr Reynolds couldn’t get over her despite her affection for Robert Redford.

“I’m absolutely sick of the media exploiting past relationships just to drive clicks,” Mr Reynolds responded in jest.

“Our national treasure, Betty White, has passed just before her 100th birthday. Our Sue Ann Nivens, our beloved Rose Nylund, has joined the heavens to delight the stars with her inimitable style, humour, and charm. A great loss to us all. We shall miss her dearly,” George Takei wrote.

“No, you know what? F**k it. Betty White was 100 in my heart. She made it a century and kicked a** the whole way. Rip to a legend,” Mica Burton added.

Reacting to her death, President Joe Biden said: “That’s a shame. She was a lovely lady ... 99 years old. As my mother would say, God love her.”

“Who didn’t love Betty White? We’re so sad,” First Lady Jill Biden added.

“A spirit of goodness and hope. Betty White was much beloved because of who she was, and how she embraced a life well-lived. Her smile. Her sense of humour. Her basic decency. Our world would be better if more followed her example. It is diminished with her passing,” journalist Dan Rather tweeted.

“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” agent and friend Jeff Witjas told People magazine in a statement on Friday. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

Ms White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on 17 January 1922. Her family moved to California a year later, arriving in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. She began working in television in 1939, but put her career on hold to volunteer with the American Women’s Voluntary Services during World War II.

In 1952, White co-created the sitcom Life With Elizabeth which ran until 1955 and made her the first female sitcom producer in Hollywood history. She remained a fixture on American television during the Sixties, and from 1973 to 1977 won great acclaim with her hilarious turn as fictional TV host Sue Anne Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

From 1985 to 1992, White played Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, the role for which she remains best known. White won the Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for the first season of the show and went on to be nominated in the same category every year the show ran.

Ms White and Mr Reynolds appeared together in the 2009 romcom The Proposal. Mr Reynolds has at times referred to Ms White as his ex-girlfriend after they worked together.