Amy Yasbeck still speaks to her late husband John Ritter every day, more than two decades after his sudden death.
Yasbeck, 64, said in an exclusive interview that the daily conversations feel natural. “I still talk to John,” she said. “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. 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.”
What Yasbeck misses most about Ritter 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.
The couple met 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.
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.