Dr Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and bestselling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, has died.
She was 96.Westheimer died on Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family, according to publicist and friend Pierre Lehu.
Westheimer’s giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her 1.4 metre frame, made her an unlikely looking - and sounding - outlet for “sexual literacy.” The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.But it was her extensive knowledge and training, coupled with her humourous, nonjudgmental manner, that catapulted her local radio program, “Sexually Speaking,” into the national spotlight in the early 1980s.
Talk show host Phil Donahue, centre, poses with several other prominent television personalities including Dr Ruth after the taping of “Donahue: The 25th Anniversary,” in New York,in 1982.“If we could bring about talking about sexual activity the way we talk about diet — the way we talk about food — without it having this kind of connotation that there’s something not right about it, then we would be a step further. But we have to do it with good taste,” she told Johnny Carson in 1982.
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