Katey Sagal has reflected on the sudden death of her 8 Simple Rules co-star John Ritter, recalling that she had seen him only hours before he died at 54.
Ritter died unexpectedly in 2003 while working on the sitcom’s second season. He and Sagal starred together on the series, and the cast had already completed three episodes before his death brought production to a halt.
Sagal recently shared that she still senses Ritter’s presence today.
“I just feel him around. His energy and his love of laughter and life,” she told Ted Danson on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, adding that he ‘brought so much light’.
“Even though I think he had his darker side too, he just brought so much light that I just feel him around,” she added.
Ritter died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection, a severe medical emergency involving a tear in the body’s main artery. The condition is frequently confused with a heart attack, which is initially what many believed had happened. Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, has since founded the John Ritter Foundation to raise awareness about the condition and help prevent similar tragedies.
Sagal explained that she had been doing press with Ritter at around four in the afternoon, and by 10 p.m. he was gone.
“It was mind-blowing. It was just really mind-blowing,” Sagal said.
The series also featured Kaley Cuoco in one of her earliest major roles, years before she became widely known for playing Penny in The Big Bang Theory. She was 16 years old when the show premiered in 2002.
Cuoco, now 40, has also spoken about the impact Ritter had on her life and career, saying he left a lasting mark on her from the very beginning.
“He was there at the beginning for my career. I spent a year and a half with him, but it changed my life, my entire life,” she said.
During the same podcast conversation, Sagal also discussed becoming a mother later in life.
The actress, now 72, said her husband Kurt Sutter, who is 20 years younger than she is, had initially told her he did not want children. She responded by telling him she had ‘five minutes left’ if he was going to reconsider.
According to Sagal, Sutter eventually changed his mind after five years, and the couple then began the surrogacy process.
They welcomed their daughter, Esmé Louise, in 2007. She is now 19.
Esmé is Sagal’s youngest child. She is also mother to Sarah Grace, 31, and Jackson, 30, from her previous marriage to Jack Cameron White.
Before Sarah Grace was born, Sagal suffered the heartbreak of a stillbirth in October 1991.
Sagal and White later separated, and their divorce was finalized in 2000.
White died in 2024, with their son Jackson confirming the news in an Instagram post.
“This guy taught me everything,” the Tell Me Lies actor wrote.
“We had ups and downs, as a man has with their father. But in the end it was just love,” he said alongside a series of photos.
“Big Jack White. 1954-2024. I love you dad forever,” he concluded the emotional post.