Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a popular sex therapist and talk show host who spoke openly about sex and intimate topics, died Friday at age 96.
Her publicist confirmed her death to BBC News partner CBS News, but did not give an exact cause of death.
Ruth Westheimer, often referred to as Dr. Ruth, became famous for speaking openly about sex, becoming a pop culture icon and bestselling author of books like “Sex for Beginners.”
She advocated for an open conversation about sex in an unbiased approach.
Dr. Ruth, who speaks with a German accent, is a Holocaust survivor born in Frankfurt, Germany.
In the 1980s she hosted her own local radio program called “Sexually Speaking,” which became so popular that it went national in 1984, putting her on the path to national fame.
She wrote her first book, Dr Ruth's Guide to Good Sex, in 1983, which aimed to demystify sex. It was the first of more than 40 books she would write.
The following year, Dr. Ruth launched her own television program, The Dr. Ruth Show, and wrote a nationally syndicated advice column.
“I knew there was a lot of knowledge out there, but it wasn’t getting to young people,” Dr. Ruth told NBC Nightly News in 2019., Out.
Dr. Ruth has appeared frequently on talk shows including The Howard Stern Radio Show, The Dr. Oz Show, Nightline, The Tonight Show, and Late Night with David Letterman.
Last November, New York Governor Kathy Cole announced that Dr. Ruth would be the state's loneliness ambassador.
“I am deeply honored by the Governor and I pledge to work day and night to make sure New Yorkers feel less alone!” Dr. Ruth said at the time.
Born Carola Ruth Siegel in 1928, she left for Switzerland at the age of ten on the instructions of her parents to escape Kristallnacht, the violent Nazi riots against Jews before the Holocaust.
After leaving for Switzerland, Dr. Ruth never saw her parents again and believed they had been murdered in the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz.
