Ryan Seacrest Gets Real: 'Relationships' Are His 'Biggest Fear' — and Fans Are Shook!

Ryan Seacrest isn’t sugarcoating his emotions on set of Wheel of Fortune! The beloved TV host threw fans for a loop with a jaw-dropping revelation about his love life during a lively episode aired on March 11.

While chatting with contestant Jill McDaniel, who shared that her friends hold “discussion dinners,” where they ask each other intriguing questions, things took a surprising turn. When Seacrest pressed McDaniel on the kind of questions posed during their gab session, she hit him with a thought-provoking one: “What is your biggest fear?”

Vanna White was then asked to join in. “Oh, my biggest fear? Erm … spiders? Spiders is a big one,” she confessed, before tossing the question back to Seacrest.

“Relationships,” Seacrest admitted candidly.

McDaniel didn’t miss a beat, giving Seacrest a fist bump to applaud his honesty. “We are each other’s people,” the former American Idol host quipped, keeping the playful banter alive.

It’s been nearly a year since Seacrest's public split from girlfriend Aubrey Paige. “After three beautiful years together, Seacrest and Petcosky have mutually decided to part ways,” a source close to the couple revealed to People in April 2024. “They plan to stay in each other’s lives as good friends and support one another’s endeavors.”

Seacrest, who dodged the marriage milestone his entire life, expressed dreams of walking down the aisle someday. “I love the idea [of getting married],” he confessed back in 2017 while co-hosting Live With Kelly and Ryan. “I figure the longer I wait, the older I’ll be, the closer to death I am, so I can get it in and not [mess] it up.”

In a revealing moment that year, Seacrest admitted he came close to proposing to one of his past partners, although he kept the name under wraps. “I did get close and I didn’t do it and it was the right move,” he confessed, highlighting his family's longstanding commitment. “And my parents have been married for 47 years, and so I have this thing.”

Before his romance with model Paige, Seacrest had a rollercoaster relationship with Shayna Taylor from 2013 to 2020, with multiple breakups and reconciliations. “Ryan and Shayna decided to end their romantic relationship amicably some time ago,” a rep told People in June 2020. “They remain good friends, each other’s biggest supporters and will always cherish their time together as a couple.”

Their breakup came just a month after Seacrest celebrated a milestone on the morning talk show, which he left in 2023. “I just want to say, happy third anniversary to Shayna,” he beamed. “It is our third time together. So we’ve gotten together, broken up, gotten together, broken up. This is number three of being together. So we’re celebrating as well.”