Celebrity sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer dies at the age of 96

The renowned sex therapist and talk show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who spoke openly about sex and intimate topics, died on Friday at the age of 96.

Her publicist confirmed her death to BBC news partner CBS News, without disclosing the cause of death.

Ruth Westheimer, often referred to as Dr. Ruth, became known for speaking openly about sex. She became a pop culture icon and a bestselling author of self-help books such as Sex For Dummies.

She pushed for open conversations about sex without prejudice.

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

In the 1980s, she had her own local radio show called “Sexually Speaking,” which gained widespread popularity and paved the way for her to national fame after it went national in 1984.

She wrote her first book, “Dr. Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex,” in 1983. In it, she wanted to demystify sex. It was the first of over 40 books she wrote.

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

“I knew there was a lot of knowledge out there that wasn’t reaching young people,” Dr. Ruth told NBC Nightly News in 2019.

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.

She was born Karola Ruth Siegel in 1928. At the age of ten, her parents sent her to Switzerland to escape Kristallnacht, a violent Nazi uprising against Jews before the Holocaust.

Dr. Ruth never saw her parents again after they left for Switzerland and believed they were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, a Nazi extermination camp.

At the age of 16, she moved to Palestine and joined the Haganah, an underground military organization that fought for Israel’s independence.

Dr. Ruth was trained as a sniper at the time, but never used her skills.

During her stay in Palestine, a bomb exploded in her dormitory, seriously injuring her legs.

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

The marriage broke down and she moved to New York with her second husband. The couple had a daughter together.

Dr. Ruthe divorced her second husband before she met Manfred Westheimer, a refugee from Nazi Germany. They married and had a son. They remained 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 earned a doctorate in education from Columbia University and taught at Lehman College in the Bronx.

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

Last November, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Dr. Ruth would become the state’s Honorary Ambassador for Loneliness.

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