Alex Carson
When John Ritter passed away on September 11, 2003, his wife was devastated! At the time, John was married to second wife Amy Yasbeck. Today, after nearly two decades, Amy claims that she still has a hard time dating because being with other men only makes her miss John more. However, the widow did have a romantic fling with the lawyer she hired to help her out with the wrongful-death suit that resulted from her husband’s passing. Join Facts Verse as we explore how John Ritter’s widow still hasn’t moved on – or has she?
After nearly two decades, Amy Yasbeck is still having a hard time getting over the death of her late husband. The 60-year-old actress has only been married one time over the course of her lifetime, and that marriage was to television star John Ritter. The two were only married from 1999 to 2003, with the marriage ending as a result of John’s passing. However, they had known each other for nearly a decade prior to tying the knot. Some might wonder by Amy hasn’t remarried after nearly 20 years. According to the actress herself, she’s afraid to move on completely from John because interacting with other men simply makes her miss her late husband.
Amy Yasbeck claimed recently that she doesn’t date. However, there is a man that she has been pictured several times alongside in the years since John Ritter’s passing. Amy and John first met during the production of the 1990 film Problem Child. Dennis Dugan directed the film, and John and Amy first met during a table read that was occurring at the director’s house. The two quickly hit it off, and their relationship only grew stronger over the course of the picture’s filming. Problem Child was meant to be the movie that helped John transition from the small screen to the big screen. Though it wasn’t a huge hit with critics, it was popular enough with audience members that a sequel was immediately rushed into production with both John and Amy reprising their roles from the first film. Though the two performers could be seen in 1991’s Problem Child 2, they chose not to return for the made-for-television sequel Problem Child 3: Junior in Love.
While John Ritter and Amy Yasbeck hit it off on the set of Problem Child, it wouldn’t be until many years later that the two would actually tie the knot. Over the course of the 1990s, the pair continued dating before finally making things official in 1999. A year prior to their 1999 wedding, John and Amy had their first and only child together. That child’s name is Noah Ritter. The John had a good relationship with Noah during the first several years of her life, he sadly wouldn’t be around to watch her come of age. Tragically, on Noah’s fifth birthday, John Ritter passed away seemingly out of nowhere.
According to Amy Yasbeck, the thing that helped her connect with John Ritter was the television actor’s comedic skills. The two were performing together in a comedic film, and John was the much more experienced comedic performer. John helped Amy feel more confident about her performance in Problem Child. It seems that the two would get together and watch classic comedy films, and this is how the pair ended up bonding romantically. Sadly, the good thing that John and Amy had going came to an end on September 11, 2003. At the time, John was busy working on his new hit show, which was called 8 Simple Rules. The actor hadn’t had a successful sitcom since Three’s Company, and he was incredibly grateful for the opportunity to become a big-name small-screen star once again.
8 Simple Rules came on the air in 2002. Sadly, John Ritter wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the success of the series due to the fact that he passed away only one year into it’s production. The show would continue after John’s passing, though the audience missed John. The actor had fallen ill during the filming of an episode, which required him to be rushed to the hospital. Once there, the doctors determined that John was suffering from a heart attack. However, the affliction that John was suffering from ending up being something a bit more obscure. As a result of the misdiagnosis, John passed away relatively quickly.
Though the doctors had believed that John Ritter was suffering from a heart attack, what he was actually suffering from was an aortic dissection. This misdiagnosis would not only cause the actor’s death, but would also inspire his widow to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctors in question. Unbelievably, it seems that Amy ended up finding love with the lawyer she hired to help her out. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
When John Ritter was being treated for his supposed heart attack at the hospital, he allegedly asked one of the doctors for a second opinion. However, the doctor turned down the actor’s plea because he said there was no time. The doctor truly believed that a heart attack was what John was suffering from, and he felt that there was no time to waste in treating it. Sadly, the affliction that had befallen John wasn’t a heart attack, and the actor ended up passing away after being wrongfully treated. Unsurprisingly, this misdiagnosis resulted in widow Amy Yasbeck filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctors involved in John’s passing.
After John Ritter’s death, Amy Yasbeck attempted to sue the hospital where he died for nearly $70 million. This sum included medical costs, as well as all of the television earning that John missed out on as a result of his passing. Despite the fact that misdiagnosis was certainly culpable n John’s death, the courts ended up finding the doctors that were involved in the incident innocent. Amy didn’t receive the money that she was looking for in the lawsuit, but she did receive something else from the lawyer who helped her!
Amy Yasbeck has claimed that she hasn’t been very anxious to date in the nearly two decades since her late husband’s passing. However, there is some photographic evidence that flies in the face of the 60-year-old widow’s statements. In order to help her out with the wrongful death lawsuit, Amy hired a lawyer by the name of Michael Plonsker. Years after the matter of the lawsuit seemingly came to an end. Amy and Michael started showing up together at social events. The two were photographed together multiple times, and Amy even posted one of these photographs on her social media with the caption “power couple”. It seems that Amy and Michael were a romantic item for at least a couple of years. It remains unclear why Amy doesn’t like to bring up the fact that she dated Michael Plonsker when talking about her late husband. The actress still insists that she’s not ready to move on from John’s death, so perhaps she feels guilty for the brief period of time that she spent with Michael.
If Amy Yasbeck’s words are to be believed, then she and Michael Plonsker are no longer an item. However, the truth of the actress’s statements regarding her love life remains to be seen. Amy and Michael were first spotted together while attending the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco in 2013. Michael hasn’t just been pictured with Amy, but has also been pictured with Noah Ritter. This suggests that whatever was (or still is) going on between Amy and Michael is more than just a casual fling. Still, it’s hard to know the truth of the matter given Amy’s continued claims that she hasn’t dated at all since the death of her late husband.
Even though Amy Yasbeck was unsuccessful with her wrongful death lawsuit, she’s still been able to make some positive things come about from the fatal misdiagnosis of her late husband. After John’s death, Amy founded the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. With the foundation, the actress helps spread awareness about the fluke affliction that ended up doing her husband in. She believes that, by spreading awareness about aortic dissection, she can help prevent misdiagnoses like the one that led to John’s death.
As we’ve already briefly touched upon, the day that John Ritter tragically passed away also happened to be the fifth birthday of his and Amy Yasbeck’s only child. Though Noah Ritter is the only child that John and Amy had during their relationship, John had three other children from his previous marriage. When John was first rushed to the hospital from the set of 8 Simple Rules, his first concern was the he was ruining his fourth child’s birthday. Little could the actor have predicted that he wasn’t going to make it through the night.
According to Amy Yasbeck, John was in so much pain the final time that she saw him that he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Amy told her husband that she loved him, and he told her that he loved her back using sign language. John was then rushed into the emergency room. A little while later, Amy has recalled hearing the term “code blue” over the hospital intercom, at which point she first became suspicious that things might not be going her husband’s way. In a relatively short amount of time, John was dead. The passing of the television legend came as a massive surprise.
Though 60-year-old widow Amy Yasbeck claims that she hasn’t moved on since the death of her husband John Ritter in 2003, she has been spotted out on the town with her lawyer. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that John Ritter’s death was caused by a misdiagnosis, and that John and his second wife bonded over old comedic films? Comment down below!
