Famous sex therapist Dr. Ruth dies at age 96 in NYC

Celebrated sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, born Karola Ruth Siegel – known to most as just “Dr. Ruth” – passed away peacefully at her home in New York City last Friday. She was 96 years old and the cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.

Dr. Ruth is known across the country and is especially popular in New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul named her the country’s first Ambassador Against Loneliness in 2023.

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

As already mentioned by the New York Times Her obituary stated that Dr. Ruth was a Holocaust survivor whose parents were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. In 1956, she moved into an apartment in Washington Heights, New York, where she lived until her death.

An important part of the city’s cultural canon, Dr. Ruth has been dispensing advice to New Yorkers for years on everything from intimacy in close quarters (“Try having sex when there are no (roommates) around”) to the world of online dating (“I welcome any dating service if people are intelligent and careful, and if you know people can lie and say they’re six feet tall.”).

Her death has obviously affected many people. Below is a collection of some of the most heartwarming reactions to Dr. Ruth’s passing: