Renowned Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dead at 96

The world has lost a legend.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the celebrated sex therapist who took radio, TV and publishing by storm with her frank conversations about love and sex, has died, her publicist Pierre Lehu confirmed to NBC News. She was 96.

"She died peacefully at her home in New York City on July 12th surrounded by her loving family," her family, including children Joel and Miriam, shared in a statement, "just over a month after celebrating her 96th birthday."

A childhood survivor of the Holocaust, the German-born Westheimer rose to fame in 1980, when she was in her early 50s, with her late-night call-in radio show on New York's WYNY, Sexually Speaking. With her small frame and willingness to speak candidly about taboo topics like life in the bedroom, she soon became a sensation. 

Initially just a 15-minute program where she answered questions about sex and offered advice to callers, the broadcast was ultimately expanded into a nationally syndicated show that ran until 1990.

Westheimer expanded to TV in the mid-'80s, first with her half-hour Lifetime series Good Sex! With Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She later headlined the expanded series The Dr. Ruth Show and teen-focused shows What's Up, Dr. Ruth? and You're on the Air with Dr. Ruth, among several other follow-up programs dedicated to breaking stigma surrounding talking about sex.

And she took this mission to all mediums, releasing the trivia-based board game Dr. Ruth's Game of Good Sex and a subsequent computer game version—both of which became smash successes—as well as starring in a how-to video series for Playboy in the '90s. 

A frequent talk show guest, Westheimer, who published 45 books on sexuality throughout her life, also made appearances as herself in shows like Quantum Leap and One Life to Live in the '90s.

But sex and sexuality weren’t the only topics she focused on. Westheimer whose life and work served as inspiration for films and a 2013 Broadway play, also spoke about the Holocaust and antisemitism. An only child of Orthodox Jewish parents, she was sent to an orphanage in Switzerland at the start of World War II, during which her parents were killed.

Following her death, several stars, including Adam Sandler, expressed their grief.

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