'Three is not company': 19 years on John Ritter's widow Amy Yasbeck reveals why she still doesn't date
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: September 2023 will mark John Ritter’s 20th death anniversary. The actor was 54 when he unexpectedly died, leaving behind his wife Amy Yasbeck, and their only child, Noah Lee, who was born a girl named Stella.
Though a lot of time has passed since the ‘Three’s Company’ star’s death, the love Yasbeck had for Ritter has remained unchanged and she chose to be single. As per reports, Yasbeck and Ritter first met in 1990 during a table read for ‘Problem Child’ at the director Dennis Dugan's house. At the time, the comedy icon was a married man with three children.
ALSO READ
‘John and I bonded over comedy'
Ritter and his first wife, Nancy Morgan, had three children — Jason, Tyler, and Carly. In 1997, Morgan and the ‘8 Simple Rules’ actor divorced each other. A year later, Ritter became father to Noah and in 1999, he married Yasbeck.
In 2022, the 60-year-old actress told PEOPLE, “John and I bonded over comedy, where we'd watch old comedies. He would do moves and he would teach me how to trip or take a fake punch or spit take. I was learning that kind of stuff, physical comedy from the master, which John was.”
In the early 2000s, Ritter's career as well as his personal life were going great but on September 11, 2003, things went south. Reports said that he had chest pains while on the set of ‘8 Simple Rules’. The Primetime Emmy Award winner was taken to the Providence St Joseph Medical Center but he could not be saved.
He was ‘scared’
It was later revealed that his cause of death was aortic dissection, which refers to “a serious condition in which a tear occurs in the inner layer of the body's main artery (aorta). Blood rushes through the tear, causing the inner and middle layers of the aorta to split (dissect). If the blood goes through the outside aortic wall, aortic dissection is often deadly,” per the Mayo Clinic.
In 2008, Yasbeck spoke openly about his last moments. As reported by Today, when the ‘Bad Santa’ star was admitted to the hospital, he was “scared” but he checked with the attending doctor Dr Joseph Lee if they should take another doctor’s opinion before doing an angiogram. Ritter was told that he was having a heart attack.
‘That’s the last time I saw him’
“Dr Lee said, ’No, there’s no time. You’re in the middle of a heart attack,”’ Yasbeck reportedly said, adding that she “leaned down to John’s ear and said, ’I know you’re scared but you have to be brave and do this because these guys know what they’re doing.’ And he was brave for all the time I saw him.”
Before undergoing the procedure, Ritter reportedly said “I love you” to Yasbeck using sign language and she replied the same. She said, “He went around the corner and that’s the last time I saw him.”
Later, Ritter's family sued the doctors for wrongdoing. Yasbeck and the actor’s children won the suit and they were given nearly $14M as the settlement amount. So many things have changed since then.
‘Three is not company’
Yasbeck reportedly said, “I don't date. I mean, it could happen. I'm not in the mood. I think I would miss John more if I was dating, as weird as that sounds. But because I always feel like he's with me, and that would be weird because in that case, three is not company.”
She added, “I have been dedicated heart and soul and mostly aorta, to creating the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. It takes up a great deal of time, but it needed to happen and it has already had some beautiful results in just the awareness that's brought to aortic dissection and aortic health in general.”