Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Hulu
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who offered advice on sex and relationships for decades, died on Friday, July 12. She was 96.
Her spokesman told The New York Times on Saturday, July 13, that Dr. Ruth died the day prior at her New York City home.
Born Ruth Siegel in Germany in June 1928, Westheimer survived the Holocaust as a child, but her parents were killed in the tragedy. She later moved to Switzerland to live in an orphanage for Jewish refugee children. In 1950, she relocated to Paris and studied psychology, but she ultimately settled in New York City after emigrating to the United States. There, she attended The New School for Social Research, and she eventually became a U.S. citizen. While working at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Harlem, she decided to pursue studies in human sexuality.
In 1980, Westheimer began offering advice on a weekly radio show in New York called Sexually Speaking. It became so popular that it was nationally syndicated in 1984. She went on to host her own talk shows and publish more than 40 books, including 1995’s Sex for Dummies.
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Even in her 90s, Westheimer was not afraid to address typically taboo topics. In August 2019, she revealed the No. 1 question she received about sex. “These days, it’s not so much how to have an orgasm. It’s not so much how to have an erection. It’s more a question about boredom,” she exclusively told Us Weekly at the time.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
She continued: “‘It’s always the same position. We don’t talk enough about it and we don’t really have enough interest of having sex.’ That’s a big problem. Avoiding sexual activity is a sign that something is wrong in the relationship or that sex has not been satisfactory.”
Although Westheimer was still comfortable talking about sex in the later years of her life, she expanded her horizons by becoming New York’s first loneliness ambassador in November 2023. She actually pitched the idea herself after feeling isolated amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I still will talk about orgasms,” she explained to The New York Times of her new gig. “I still will talk about sexual dysfunction. But I have done that.”
Westheimer knew she had more to offer the world and took matters into her own hands. “So now I am going to say, let’s go and see how we can help people who don’t have a sexual problem,” she said. “I don’t want to be known only as a sex therapist. I want to be known as a therapist.”
Westheimer is survived by daughter Miriam, son Joel and her four grandchildren. Her late husband, Manfred “Fred” Westheimer, died in 1997.