Dr. Ruth Westheimer, celebrity therapist who revolutionized public discourse on sex, dead at 96

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the Holocaust orphan who rose to become one of the most famous sex therapists in America, a 4-foot-7 celebrity with a big smile and a penchant for tackling the most taboo of subjects with blunt honesty and matronly humor, died Friday at her home in New York City, according to her publicist, Pierre Lehu.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the Holocaust orphan who rose to become one of the most famous sex therapists in America, a 4-foot-7 celebrity with a big smile and a penchant for tackling the most taboo of subjects with blunt honesty and matronly humor, died Friday at her home in New York City, according to her publicist, Pierre Lehu.

She died just over a month after her 96th birthday.

"The children of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer are sad to announce the passing of their mother, the internationally-celebrated sex therapist, author, talk show host, professor, and orphan of the Holocaust," her family said in a statement Saturday.

Ruth Westheimer participates in a panel discussion in 2019.Willy Sanjuan / Invision / APThe family will hold a private funeral, Lehu said.

As a 50-something therapist, she found sudden fame on radio, television and in bookstores during the 1980s, fueled by a simple formula: talking honestly in public about intimate subjects that few others dared to raise even in private.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dr-ruth-westheimer-celebrity-therapist-obituary-rcna132883

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