How John Ritter’s Widow is Honoring Him 20 Years After His Death
Three’s Company star John Ritter passed away unexpectedly 20 years ago at the age of 54. At the time, he was working on the show 8 Simple Rules, which addressed his death. He was also a guest star on Scrubs and the show paid homage to Ritter with an episode about his character’s death as well. Ritter suffered from a misdiagnosis and ultimately died from aortic dissection after experiencing severe chest pain and nausea.
Now, his widow, Amy Yasbeck, hopes that others can avoid the same fate. She started the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health to raise awareness of thoracic aortic disease and help fund research and education. Ritter’s symptoms were treated like a heart attack but he needed a different treatment, ultimately leading to his death.
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Yasbeck shared, “If you’ve been diagnosed, or you need to talk to somebody who’s been in the same situation, we have the aorta advocates and then ‘Ritter Rules,’ which is a set of rules for understanding what your risk is.” The Ritter Rules are explained on the website for the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health.
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Back in May, Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davidson from 8 Simple Rules joined Yasbeck at “An Evening From the Heart LA 2023” hosted by the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. Yasbeck added that she keeps in touch with the stars, who became like family after losing Ritter.
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Yasbeck also said that keeping his children around makes her feel like Ritter is still here. Ritter shared three children with his first wife, Nancy Morgan, and one child with Yasbeck. “If you get all four kids together, you can kind of re-create John, so that’s always good,” said joked.
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