Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
John Ritter told widow Amy Yasbeck she was “too thin” when they first met and immediately made her a bagel.
The actress’ slender frame prompted the late actor to take matters into his own hands, quickly rustling up some food for her to eat while they were at director Dennis Dugan’s house.
Amy, 64, recalled to People: “My very first conversation with John was at Dennis Dugan’s house. Dennis was the director of Problem Child.
“And he told me I was too thin, and he fixed me a bagel. I’ve been jamming those bagels ever since.”
She met John on the set of the 1990 comedy-drama, and they were married from 1999 until his death on September 11, 2003, at the age of 54.
He suffered an aortic dissection, described by Mayo Clinic as a “medical emergency in which a tear happens in the inner layer of the body’s main artery”.
Earlier this month, Amy revealed she talks to the Three’s Company alum every day to keep his memory alive.
She told the New York Post’s Page Six: “I still talk to John. I check in all the time. … I talk to him every day.”
The Pretty Woman star set up The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health in the entertainer’s memory, and it “works to fund research, provide education, and raise awareness of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection”.
His pal and Three’s Company co-star Richard Kline thinks the “incredibly important” foundation’s success in teaching people about the condition would have saved John’s life 26 years ago.
Richard, 82, added to People: “Had we had this kind of knowledge in 2003, my dear departed friend John would still be with us.
“The work that Amy, his wife, has been doing and the foundation has been doing for the last 20-some-odd years is incredible.
“Little-known fact: It saved the life of John’s brother because he was then scanned and diagnosed for an aortic tear.
“He went into the operating room. Saved his life.”
Amy, who had son Noah, 28, with John, believes more work needs to be done to teach people about aortic dissection.
She said: “There’s definitely a pre-John Ritter awareness and a post-John Ritter awareness.
“Sadly, John died in the waning hours of the pre-John Ritter awareness. So now we know it’s not as rare as people thought, and there are steps you can take to avoid a family tragedy.”
