Famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer dead at 96
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the famed sex therapist who revolutionized talking about sex and sexuality, has died at age 96, her publicist, Pierre Lehu, confirms to Page Six.
“She died peacefully, at home, holding the hands of her son and daughter,” Lehu tells us.
In a separate statement to People, Lehu said, “It was as peacefully as she could possibly go. She was 96.”
He added, “It’s amazing, there was stuff still going on in her life [she has a book coming out this fall with Allison Gilbert] and someone wants to make a biopic about her.”
No cause of death was announced, but New York Times reported she died in her Manhattan home.
Westheimer, who’s real name was Karola Ruth Seigel, was born on June 4, 1928, in Wiesenfeld, Germany.
At age 10 she was sent to Switzerland to escape WWII. She was the sole survivor of her family, who died in the Holocaust.
As a teenager, Westheimer moved to Palestine and joined the Israeli army where she was trained as a sniper, though she did not shoot anyone.
She moved to Paris with her first husband, an Israeli soldier in 1950, and studied psychology at the Sorbonne. She and her first husband split just five years later and she moved to America with her second husband, with whom she shared daughter Miriam.
After the split from her second husband, she met Manfred Westheimer and married for a third time. The couple remained married for 36 years until he passed away in 1997 of heart failure. They shared one child together named Joel.
Ruth obtained her doctorate from Columbia University and went on to teach at sex education at Lehman College in the Bronx and to women at Planned Parenthood.
Throughout her life, Ruth never advocated for risky sexual behavior, but encouraged people to openly discuss sex and sexuality.
“I still hold old-fashioned values and I’m a bit of a square,” she said in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”
Ruth’s media career began in 1980 when she started hosting a call-in radio program called “Sexually Speaking” and by 1983 it was one of the top rated shows around the country and by 1984 she had her own television program, “The Dr. Ruth Show.”
Celebrity deaths 2024: Actors, singers and stars we lost this year
Her blunt and humorous way of addressing sex catapulted her into pop culture and fame.
She appeared on shows including, “The Howard Stern Radio Show,” “Nightline,” “The Tonight Show,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Dr. Oz Show.”
She also wrote several best-selling books including, “Sex for Dummies,” “All in a Lifetime” and “Musically Speaking: A Life through Song.”
For her 94th birthday in 2022, Ruth told Page Six her mission was to help lonely people as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage on.
“I would like to be the ambassador for the state of New York combating loneliness,” she told us, “I want to give good advice to people who are lonely.”
