‘Sex Therapist’ Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dies, But Cause of Death Unclear

Getty Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Well-known “sex therapist” and talk show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer has died at the age of 96, her spokesman confirmed to The New York Times on July 13.

According to The Times, Westheimer’s spokesman, Pierre Lehu, confirmed that she died Friday, July 12, 2024, at her home in New York City. A cause of death for Westheimer was not released.

Lehu also confirmed Westheimer’s death to People Magazine. “She was restful when she passed away. Her son and daughter were with her and holding her hand at that moment,” Lehu told People. “It was as peacefully as she could possibly go. She was 96.” He told People that a biopic is in the works about Westheimer’s life.

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter profiled Westheimer, saying she was one of the entertainment industry’s last survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. She described herself as “an orphan of the Holocaust,” after her entire family was murdered by the Nazis, People Magazine reported.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer Was Known for Her Radio Show About Sexually Taboo Topics

GettyDr. Ruth Westheimer.

According to Rolling Stone, Westheimer started working for a “pioneering sex therapist” named Helen Singer Kaplan when she was in her 40s.

By the next decade of her life, she had started her own radio talk show called “Sexually Speaking” on New York’s WYNY, Rolling Stone reported, touching on then sexually “taboo” topics. The audience soon grew, and the show was syndicated, Rolling Stone reported.

The radio show led to talk show appearances and then her own television show called “Good Sex!” in 1984, Rolling Stone reported, adding that the show later became known as “The Dr. Ruth Show.”

According to People Magazine, Westheimer once indicated that she was surprised that “I became famous,” adding that she was also surprised “that I have a wonderful daughter, son-in-law, a wonderful son, and daughter-in-law and four wonderful grandchildren.”

Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s Family Perished During the Nazi Holocaust, But She Was Placed on a Train to Switzerland, Saving Her Life, Reports Say

GettyDr. Ruth Westheimer being interviewed.

In The Hollywood Reporter story on the Holocaust, Westheimer revealed that she was saved in 1939 when her mother and grandmother put her on a train in Frankfurt, Germany, “for a children’s home in Switzerland, a beneficiary of the Kindertransport program” that rescued many Jewish children.

She told the public that she never saw them again, saying they “waved goodbye.” The story reported that Westheimer’s father was sent to a work camp, and she never saw him again after that, either.

It’s believed her family died at the Auschwitz concentration camp, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which quoted her as saying, “It was very difficult in the home. But we created a community, a family.”

As a teen she joined the Israel Defense Force before moving to Paris, where she worked as a teacher, The Hollywood Reporter noted, adding that she eventually moved to New York City, married, and had kids of her own.

“People like me need to stand up and be counted to repair the world,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.