John Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, is speaking out 20 years after the actor’s death.
The Emmy winning actor, best known for “Three’s Company” and “8 Easy Rules,” died at age 54 in 2003, after he suffered from aortic dissection and was misdiagnosed.
Yasbeck, 61 (also an actress, known for “Wings”), told Fox News Digital, “John was working on a sitcom and throughout the workday he had chest pain, pain in his back… ripping chest pain and nausea.”
The producer took Ritter to the emergency room, where his symptoms were treated as a heart attack, she said. But as an alternative, he was dying from thoracic aortic dissection – a condition during which a tear occurs within the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s essential artery.
After his death, Yasbeck established The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health, which works to boost awareness of the thoracic aortic disease through research, education and advocacy.
“If you happen to’ve been diagnosed, or you must talk over with someone who’s been in the identical situation, we’ve got the aorta advocates after which ‘Ritter Rules,’ which is a algorithm for understanding what your risk is,” she told the outlet.
When Fox News Digital asked Yasbeck if she keeps in contact with Ritter’s ” Easy Rules,” co-star, Kaley Cuoco, 37, she replied, “Absolutely.”
Cuoco and her partner, Tom Pelphrey, shall be the chairs of the Ritter Foundation’s event next May, Yasbeck shared.
Her kids also help her remember Ritter, she said.
“There’s no approach to not keep John’s memory alive. All 4 kids are freaking hilarious, they usually should not have to mimic their dad. They’ve all got their very own thing,” Yasbeck said.
Ritter’s 4 kids are Jason, Tyler, and Carly, who he had along with his first wife, Nancy Morgan, who he married from 1977 to 1996.
He had his fourth kid, Noah, with Yasbeck, who he married from 1999 until his 2003 death.
Jason and Tyler each followed of their dad’s Hollywood footsteps. Tyler, 38, starred within the CBS sitcom “The McCarthys,” which aired from 2014-2015, and he’s also appeared on “Modern Family,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Good Doctor.”
Jason, 43, was in “Parenthood,” “Joan of Arcadia” and is married to “Yellowjackets” star Melanie Lynskey, with whom he shares a daughter.
“If you happen to get all 4 kids together, you possibly can type of recreate John, in order that’s all the time good,” said Yasbeck.
