BREAKING: Famous sex therapist Dr Ruth dead at 96

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, one of the most famous sex therapists in America, has died at 96 years of age. No cause of death was announced from initial reports.  

According to the New York Post Westheimer died Friday at her home in Manhattan, the therapist’s publicist was able to confirm. She was offering therapy and advice on sex well into her 90s and helped to destigmatize talking about sex for many Americans.  

Last year, she was appointed as New York's honorary ambassador to loneliness by Gov. Kathy Hochul. “Dr. Ruth led an extraordinary life,” Hochul said on Saturday. “She was brave, funny, candid and brilliant.” 

“As New York’s first-ever Ambassador to Loneliness, we worked together to spotlight a mental health crisis impacting our seniors," Hochul added. “We will miss her greatly.” 

The therapist was born in Germany in 1928 and survived the Holocaust. She then relocated to the US after the war in 1956, eventually becoming more publicly known in 1980. She became known for advice on intimacy and sex, being in her 50s at the time. She was born into a middle-class Jewish family and saw her father get taken by the Nazis to the Dachau concentration camp. Westheimer's mother sent Ruth to Switzerland on the Kindertransport, a train that served as a rescue for Jewish children. 

She turned to television in 1983, launching and hosting "The Dr. Ruth Show." In her career, Westheimer wrote over 45 books and had many best-sellers in addition to hosting a slew of other TV programs. She leaves behind two children as well as four grandchildren.