Pioneering sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer has died aged 96. The 4ft 7in tall straight-talker, best known as Dr Ruth and who is globally renowned for revolutionising the way the world talked about sex and sexuality while driving the ‘sexpert’ industry – despite saying she was a “square” – died peacefully at home in Manhattan, New York City, while clutching her family’s hands, her publicist said on Saturday. (13.
07.24) Dr Ruth’s representative Pierre Lehu added in a statement to Page Six: “She died peacefully, at home, holding the hands of her son and daughter.” In a separate comment to People, Pierre added: “It was as peacefully as she could possibly go.
She was 96. “It’s amazing, there was stuff still going on in her life and someone wants to make a biopic about her.” No cause of death has yet been announced.
German-American Ruth – who married three times and had two children – was born Karola Ruth Seigel on 4 June, 1928, in Wiesenfeld, Germany. Aged 10 she was sent to Switzerland to escape World War Two and was the sole survivor of her family, who were all wiped out in the Holocaust. As a teen, she moved to Palestine and joined the Israeli army where she was trained as a sniper – though never shot anyone.
Her first husband was an Israeli solder and she moved to Paris with him in 1950, where she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. The couple split five years after the move and she set up home in the US with her second husband, with whom she.
