Dr Ruth Westheimer, celebrity sex therapist, dies at 96

Renowned sex therapist and talk show host Dr Ruth Westheimer, who spoke openly about sex and intimate subjects, died on Friday at 96 years old.

Her publicist confirmed her death to BBC News partner CBS News without providing a cause.

Ruth Westheimer, often referred to as Dr Ruth, became known for talking openly about sex. She became a pop culture icon as well as a best-selling author with guides like “Sex for Dummies”.

She pushed for having open conversations about sex with a non-judgmental approach.

Dr Ruth, who spoke with a German accent, is a Holocaust survivor who was born in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the 1980s, she had her own local radio program called “Sexually Speaking” which became well recognized and placed her on the path to national fame when it was nationally syndicated in 1984.

She wrote her first book, Dr Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex, in 1983 in which she aimed to demystify sex. It was the first of more than 40 books she authored.

Dr Ruth launched a television program the following year called The Dr. Ruth Show and wrote a nationally syndicated advice column.

“I knew that there is a lot of knowledge that is around but doesn’t get to young people,” Dr Ruth told NBC Nightly News in 2019.

Dr Ruth frequently made appearances on talk shows including The Howard Stern Radio Show, the Dr. Oz Show, Nightline, the Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.

Born in 1928 as Karola Ruth Siegel, at ten-years-old her parents sent her to Switzerland to escape Kristallnacht, a violent riot Nazis carried out against Jews before the Holocaust.

Dr Ruth never saw her parents after leaving for Switzerland and believed they were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz – a Nazi death camp.

She moved to Palestine at 16 years old and joined the Haganah, an underground military organization fighting for Israeli independence

Dr Ruth was trained as a sniper at the time, but never put the skills to use.

While in Palestine, a bomb exploded in her dormitory that severely injured her legs.

In 1950, Dr Ruth met her first husband and moved to Paris where she studied psychology at Sorbonne University.

The marriage ended and she moved to New York with who would become her second husband. The couple had one daughter together.

Dr Ruthe divorced from her second husband before meeting Manfred Westheimer, a refugee from Nazi Germany. They married and had one son, staying together until Mr Westheimer died in 1997.

While in New York, Dr Ruth earned a master’s degree in sociology from the New School in New York. She later received a doctorate in education from Columbia University and taught at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Dr Ruth later taught at several universities and held her own private sex therapy practice.

Last November, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Dr Ruth would become the state’s honorary ambassador to loneliness.

“I am deeply honoured and promised the governor that I will work day and night to help New Yorkers feel less lonely!” Dr Ruth said at the time.