Robert Redford is among the many stars remembering Betty White, who died on New Year’s Eve.
“She made us all laugh, including me,” Redford said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Betty lived life devoted to her craft and her love of animals. She made us all laugh, including me. I had a crush on her, too!”
Redford and White had a huge admiration one for the other, despite White’s everlasting devotion to her late husband Allen Ludden, who died in 1981.
“For a long time, we had him in the office entryway,” Mikelas (her personal assistant) recalled. “When she came in, she’d say, ‘Hi sweetheart.’ “
In her recent interview with PEOPLE, White called Redford “the only one.”
“I’ve heard Ryan [Reynolds] can’t get over his thing for me,” she joked of her friend and The Proposal costar,” but Robert Redford is The One.”
White died “peacefully” in her sleep at home, 17 days before her 100th birthday.
“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” Witjas said in an earlier statement. “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.”