Betty White’s rep says actress died of “natural causes”

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As the entertainment world and her legions of fans mourns the death of Betty White, a rep for the beloved Golden Girls and Mary Tyler Moore Emmy winner has revealed her cause of death on December 31.

Via phone, her close friend and agent Jeff Witjas told ABC News, “My understanding is it was natural causes. She died in her sleep, in her own bed. It’s as simple as that.”

Witjas also maintained, “Betty didn’t have illnesses. She didn’t have anything. People are putting it out there that she had the booster on Dec. 28 and that she had [side] effects. She never had a booster.”

The rep added, “They’re politicizing her death and they shouldn’t do that because she wasn’t that type of person in life.”

Witjas told ABC News that he visited White in her home about a month before she died and found her to be “all there,” albeit physically frail. “We were laughing, her sense of humor was there,” he said.

Meanwhile, tributes continue to mount for the late performer, who would have turned 100 on January 17. Actress Yvette Nicole Brown recently posted to Instagram footage of herself and her Community cast mates belting out Toto‘s “Africa” with White in 2010.

Brown commented that the clip was a video from her old cellphone that she kept private until now. 

“I needed a bit of Betty this early morning so I searched an old computer to find it,” she explained. “After seeing it, I figured you guys might need it too.”

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