Amy Yasbeck Still Talks to John Ritter Every Day, 23 Years After His Death, Ahead of the Three's Company 50th Anniversary
Amy Yasbeck, the widow of actor John Ritter, told Page Six in an exclusive interview that she still speaks to her late husband every day, 23 years after his death.
'I still talk to John,' Yasbeck, 64, said. 'I check in all the time. … I talk to him every day.' She said she and Ritter's three children from his previous marriage — Jason, Carly and Tyler — often bond over things they believe the late actor would have enjoyed, such as a new comic on the scene or a piece of physical comedy: 'like John is with us or beside us when we're watching something entertaining.' Ritter, she added, 'was such a good audience. He loved being on stage. He loved to be in an audience.'
The couple met during a read-through for their 1990 film Problem Child. They welcomed their child, Noah, in 1998 and married the following year. Ritter died in September 2003 after experiencing chest pains while rehearsing his sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter; rushed to the hospital and initially treated for a heart attack, he died that night from an aortic dissection, at 54.
Asked what she misses most, Yasbeck said it is watching him be a father: 'That encompasses everything — his humanity, his comedy, his empathy, his frustration at the world.' She recalled Ritter as a 'very fair-minded, progressive guy' who became frustrated when people, especially children, were treated unfairly, and said hardly a day has gone by since his death without someone approaching her to share how much the actor meant to them.
In the weeks after his death, Yasbeck established the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health to raise awareness about aortic dissection and help prevent other families from experiencing a similar tragedy, noting the condition is highly genetic and in part preventable.
On November 2, Yasbeck and Ritter's former Three's Company co-star Joyce DeWitt will host a Three's Company 50th anniversary celebration at Joe's Pub in New York City, featuring a celebrity staged reading of an episode with Jason Biggs, Christine Taylor, Richard Kind, Susie Essman and Richard Kline.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Amy Yasbeck 2019 年在 GalaxyCon Louisville 的留影（资料图）。Super Festivals 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Amy Yasbeck at GalaxyCon Louisville in 2019 (file photo). Photo by Super Festivals, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
