John Ritter left behind his doting second wife, Amy Yasbeck, when he passed away on September 11, 2003, after collapsing on the set of his sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Even today, the actress feels no closure from her late husband's shocking death.
"I remember talking to Craig Ferguson. He asked me on his show after his dad passed away," Amy said on an episode of Steve Kmetko's Still Here Hollywood podcast. "And that's the first time I ever thought of it, ever said it. Somebody was talking about closure — I think Dr. Drew or somebody was on — and said something about closure."
She continued: "What closure? I understand you close a relationship... but, no, it's a circle. You're still in that circle, whether you are right at the part where you're in so much pain you can't breathe, or you see it, and it's right there, that pain, that closure; that pain that people want you to have closure on."
© WireImage"You still go through your life, but it affects you, like the moon, like tides. It's always gonna be there. You don't know why. Sometimes you have a bad day or something hit you, and you don't have to, for many people, you don't have to be in analysis [to ponder that]."
HELLO! are taking a closer look at everything we know about Amy and her relationship with the late star.
© WireImageLove story
The couple met in 1990 while working on the movie Problem Child. They tied the knot in 1999 and shared one son, Noah. John was also a father to three other children, whom he welcomed with his first wife, Nancy Morgan.
© WireImageLegacy
Following her husband's death, Amy established the John Ritter Foundation of Aortic Health, which focuses on preventing the suffering caused by aortic dissection.
© Getty ImagesActing career
Amy starred as a child on the Betty Crocker Easy-Bake Oven. She then replaced Daryl Hannah's mermaid role on Splash, Too in 1988. Her big break came as Jason Alexander's wife in Pretty Woman in 1990. She then graced the screen as Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and Mina Murray in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
© Getty Images for The John RitterRelationship with stepsons
During an interview with People, Amy revealed why John's sons, Tyler and Jason Ritter, would not take on their dad's role as Jack in the live reading of an episode of Three's Company to benefit The John Ritter Foundation.
“It'd be weird," she shared. "It's a little too weird." She explained that the family is "happy to host" the reading, and noted that Tyler and Jason have "so much" of their dad in them.
"The thing is, most of them knew John personally and the ones that didn't completely, I knew them or they completely embodied the spirit of John's personality and the personality of the show," she said. "You could tell they all had watched it since they were little kids, just by the way they brought themselves to it."
