John Ritter’s widow opens up about his death 20 years later — reveals special role Kaley Cuoco will play in foundation
John Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, is speaking out 20 years after the actor’s death.
The Emmy winner, best known for “Three’s Company” and “8 Simple Rules,” died at age 54 in 2003, after he suffered from aortic dissection and was misdiagnosed.
Yasbeck, 61 (also an actress, known for “Wings”), told Fox News Digital, “John was working on a sitcom and during the workday he had chest pain, pain in his back . . . ripping chest pain and nausea.”
The producer took Ritter to the emergency room, where his symptoms were treated as a heart attack, she said. But instead, he was dying from thoracic aortic dissection — a condition in which a tear occurs in the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s main artery.
After his death, Yasbeck established the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health, which works to raise awareness of thoracic aortic disease through research, education and advocacy.
“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,” she told the outlet.
When Fox News Digital asked Yasbeck if she keeps in touch with Ritter’s “8 Simple Rules,” co-star, Kaley Cuoco, 37, she replied, “Absolutely.”
Cuoco and her partner, Tom Pelphrey, will be the chairs of the Ritter Foundation’s event next May, Yasbeck shared.
Her kids also help her remember Ritter, she said.
“There’s no way to not keep John’s memory alive. All four kids are freaking hilarious, and they do not have to imitate their dad. They’ve all got their own thing,” Yasbeck said.
Ritter’s four children are Jason, Tyler and Carly, who he had with his first wife, Nancy Morgan, who he was married to from 1977 to 1996.
He had his fourth child, Noah, with Yasbeck, whom he was married to from 1999 until his 2003 death.
Jason and Tyler both followed in their dad’s Hollywood footsteps. Tyler, 38, starred in the CBS sitcom “The McCarthys,” which aired from 2014 to 2015, and he’s also appeared on “Modern Family,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Good Doctor.”
Jason, 43, was in “Parenthood,” “Joan of Arcadia” and is married to “Yellowjackets” star Melanie Lynskey, with whom he shares a daughter.
“If you get all four kids together, you can kind of re-create John, so that’s always good,” said Yasbeck.
