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Like father, like daughter? Maggie Sajak made her TV debut in 1996 shortly after her first birthday when she toddled onstage during a Wheel of Fortune episode. She held her father Pat’s hand and babbled into his microphone — a natural on camera! Now 29, she serves as the series’ social correspondent (a post she’s held since 2021), bringing viewers behind the scenes and interviewing contestants on both the syndicated Wheel and ABC’s Celebrity Wheel of Fortune for after-show segments on social media.
Maggie has also taken the Wheel stage, subbing for Vanna White in 2023 when White took over Pat’s job for a week. And when her father announced his departure after 43 years, speculation circled about the younger Sajak taking the game show’s helm. She won’t…yet. The new host will be American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest. But Maggie still has Fortune in her DNA. Here are some things you may not know about her.
1. She’s got Ivy League brains.
Maggie graduated from Princeton University, got her postgrad degree at Columbia and just wrapped up law school at Georgetown.
2. She can carry a tune.
Maggie launched a country music career in her teens. Her first single, released when she was 16, was called “First Kiss.” But her talent isn’t something she credits her former disc-jockey father for. Maggie told Teen Vogue in 2013, “I have my mother to thank for my love of music. She sang and played keyboard in a band when she was [a teen].”
3. She loves being on Wheel.
When she was announced as the social correspondent, Maggie said: “The Wheel of Fortune staff and crew have always been like an extended family…. It’s a real privilege to be able to treat the show’s longtime viewers to a look at what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. Plus, I get to use the carpool lane with my father!”
4. White could see Maggie filling her shoes one day.
“I think she’s a good replacement if I can’t be there for some reason,” White told E! News last year. “She’s been around [the show] her whole life.”
5. Maggie’s newest romance is with 48-year-old Scottish actor Ross McCall (Band of Brothers)
But her first love is her sweet adopted Pomeranian, Jak. Nearly a year ago, before bringing Maggie and her pooch onstage for a fun segment, Pat said: “One of the most common questions I get is, ‘Is there a man in [Maggie’s] life?’ Yes, there is, his name is Jak.”
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Wheel of Fortune: Farewell, Pat Sajak issue. For more inside scoop on the long-running game show and Pat’s final episode, pick up a copy of the issue available on newsstands and for order online at WheelofFortuneMag.com.