Iconic Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dies At 96

Iconic sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer has died at the age of 96.

Westheimer – commonly known as “Dr. Ruth” – died surrounded by her two children in her home on Friday around 11:30 p.m.

She was born in Germany in 1928 and moved to Switzerland on the eve of World War II when she was only 10 years old. Her mother and father died during the Holocaust, and Westheimer often spoke of her belief that they were killed in Auschwitz.

Westheimer lived out her teenage years in Jerusalem and trained as a sniper with a controversial Zionist militant group which later became part of the Israel Defense Forces. She went on to study in Paris before immigrating to New York City, where she went to grad school and eventually earned a degree from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Her first radio call-in show, Sexually Speaking, debuted in New York in 1980 and quickly became syndicated around the country. It was this show that led to her success in television in the mid-1980s when The Dr. Ruth Show aired on the Lifetime network. Over the next several years, she hosted other television shows that freely discussed a range of taboo sexual topics.

Westheimer rose to cultural fame as a general educator of children and teens, publishing more than 37 books and frequenting late-night talk shows.

In 2023, she was appointed as New York State’s honorary ambassador to loneliness, a role invented by state Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) who hoped Westheimer would “help New Yorkers of all ages address the growing issue of social isolation, which is associated with multiple physical and mental health issued.”

“I don’t want to be known only as a sex therapist,” Westheimer said at the time. “I want to be known as a therapist.”

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