John Ritter died more than two decades ago, but his widow, Amy Yasbeck, still speaks to him every day.
“I still talk to John,” Yasbeck told Page Six in an exclusive interview. “I check in all the time. … I talk to him every day.”
The “Wings” alum explained that she and Ritter’s three children from his previous marriage — Jason, Carly and Tyler — often bond over things they believe the late actor would have enjoyed.
“A new comic comes on the scene, or there’s physical comedy,” Yasbeck said, explaining that those moments make the family feel “like John is with us or beside us when we’re watching something entertaining.”
“John was such a good audience,” she added. “He loved being on stage. He loved to be in an audience.”
Yasbeck, 64, met the “Three’s Company” star during a read-through for their 1990 film “Problem Child.” They welcomed their child, Noah, in 1998 and tied the knot the following year.
Ritter died in September 2003 after experiencing chest pains while rehearsing his sitcom “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”
The actor was rushed to the hospital, where he was initially treated for a heart attack. He died that night from what was later determined to be an aortic dissection. He was 54.
Yasbeck told Page Six that what she misses most about her late husband is watching him be a father.
“That encompasses everything,” “The Mask” actress explained. “His humanity, his comedy, his empathy, his frustration at the world.”
She recalled Ritter as a “very fair-minded, progressive guy” who became frustrated when people, especially children, were treated unfairly.
“It would piss him off,” she said. “I mean, for the world, but also for his kids. Like, what are we doing?”
“So him as a father encompassed everything about him,” she added.
Yasbeck also revealed that hardly a day has gone by since Ritter’s death without someone approaching her to share how much the beloved actor meant to them.
“He really affected people that way,” she said.
In the weeks following his death, Yasbeck established the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health to “raise awareness about aortic dissection and help prevent other families from experiencing a similar tragedy.”
“You can remember John, everybody remembers John,” she explained. “It’s not about that. It’s [about] losing somebody in your family to something that was preventable. … The fact that it’s highly genetic.”
On Nov. 2, Yasbeck and Ritter’s former “Three’s Company” co-star Joyce DeWitt will host a “Three’s Company” 50th anniversary celebration at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
The event will feature a celebrity staged reading with Jason Biggs, Christine Taylor, Richard Kind, Susie Essman and Richard Kline.
The post John Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, reveals she still talks to late actor ‘every day’ 23 years after his death appeared first on Page Six.
