Current:Home > FinanceRenowned Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dead at 96 -Golden Horizon Investments
Renowned Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dead at 96
View
Date:2025-04-16 11:15:18
The world has lost a legend.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the celebrated sex therapist who took radio, TV and publishing by storm with her frank conversations about love and sex, has died, her publicist Pierre Lehu confirmed to NBC News. She was 96.
"She died peacefully at her home in New York City on July 12th surrounded by her loving family," her family, including children Joel and Miriam, shared in a statement, "just over a month after celebrating her 96th birthday."
A childhood survivor of the Holocaust, the German-born Westheimer rose to fame in 1980, when she was in her early 50s, with her late-night call-in radio show on New York's WYNY, Sexually Speaking. With her small frame and willingness to speak candidly about taboo topics like life in the bedroom, she soon became a sensation.
Initially just a 15-minute program where she answered questions about sex and offered advice to callers, the broadcast was ultimately expanded into a nationally syndicated show that ran until 1990.
Westheimer expanded to TV in the mid-'80s, first with her half-hour Lifetime series Good Sex! With Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She later headlined the expanded series The Dr. Ruth Show and teen-focused shows What's Up, Dr. Ruth? and You're on the Air with Dr. Ruth, among several other follow-up programs dedicated to breaking stigma surrounding talking about sex.
And she took this mission to all mediums, releasing the trivia-based board game Dr. Ruth's Game of Good Sex and a subsequent computer game version—both of which became smash successes—as well as starring in a how-to video series for Playboy in the '90s.
A frequent talk show guest, Westheimer, who published 45 books on sexuality throughout her life, also made appearances as herself in shows like Quantum Leap and One Life to Live in the '90s.
But sex and sexuality weren’t the only topics she focused on. Westheimer whose life and work served as inspiration for films and a 2013 Broadway play, also spoke about the Holocaust and antisemitism. An only child of Orthodox Jewish parents, she was sent to an orphanage in Switzerland at the start of World War II, during which her parents were killed.
Following her death, several stars, including Adam Sandler, expressed their grief.
veryGood! (45)
Related
- Sam Taylor
- Utah Halloween skeleton dancer display creates stir with neighbors
- How the Hunger Games Prequel Costumes Connect to Katniss Everdeen
- Coyotes’ Travis Dermott on using Pride tape, forcing NHL’s hand: ‘Had to be done’
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Many Americans say they're spending more than they earn, dimming their financial outlooks, poll shows
- 2023 World Series predictions: Rangers can win first championship in franchise history
- Jay-Z Reveals the Name He and Beyoncé Almost Gave Blue Ivy Before a Last Minute Change
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- Best Buy recalls nearly 1 million pressure cookers after reports of 17 burn injuries
Ranking
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- Best Buy recalls nearly 1 million pressure cookers after reports of 17 burn injuries
- NFL places Kansas City Chiefs receiver Justyn Ross on Commissioner Exempt list
- COVID-19 treatments to enter the market with a hefty price tag
- Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
- Massachusetts man's house cleaner finds his $1 million missing lottery ticket
- Pittsburgh synagogue massacre 5 years later: Remembering the 11 victims
- Sheriff names 5 people fatally shot in southeast North Carolina home
Recommendation
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Sharp increase in Afghans leaving Pakistan due to illegal migrant crackdown, say UN agencies
US expands its effort to cut off funding for Hamas
Jazz legend Louis Armstrong's connection to Queens on full display at house museum in Corona
B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
Why Love Island Games Host Maya Jama Wants a PDA-Packed Romance
Patrick Mahomes Wants Him and Travis Kelce to One Up Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes' Handshake
Brie Larson's 'Lessons in Chemistry': The biggest changes between the book and TV show