Amy Yasbeck has spent the last 19 years journeying through life without her husband physically beside her, and though she has done her best to keep his memory alive and move on, the mere thought of opening her heart to someone else is unsettling.
Amy Yasbeck exclusively tells People from her Los Angeles home that despite her husband, the late Three's Company comedian John Ritter, having been dead for 19 long years, she is not looking for someone and is not even ready to date again.
"I miss John as a partner. I don't date. I mean, it could happen. I'm not in the mood. I think I would miss John more if I was dating, as weird as that sounds. But because I always feel like he's with me, and that would be weird because in that case, three is not company," the 60-year-old widow admitted with all honesty.
John Ritter Foundation
On Sept. 11, 2003, Yasbeck's life suddenly went upside down when Ritter fell ill while shooting the "8 Simple Rules." Her husband was rushed to a Burbank hospital, where he was initially treated for a heart attack. He died later that evening, though, caused by an undetected aortic dissection at 54 years old.
As explained by Mayo Clinic, aortic dissection is a serious condition in which a tear happens in the inner layer of the body's main artery, or is called the aorta. Blood rushes through the tear, which causes the aorta's inner and middle layers to split, and if blood goes through the outer part of the aortic wall, an aortic dissection can be deadly. This is what happened to the actor.
Yasbeck keeps her husband's memory alive by trying to prevent another family from experiencing their family's heartbreak.
For 19 long years also, she has been passionate about building and managing the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. This takes up a great deal of her time, and she has no regrets, as the foundation has created beautiful results by providing awareness to the public about aortic dissection and aortic health in general.
More than this, she is also able to help save Ritter's other family members. Her husband's brother, Tom, had an aneurysm years after John passed away and since they were able to find his aortic arch, it was repaired and replaced before it could cause his death.
The actress shared that all the family, including her, gets scanned to ensure they are not at risk of aortic dissection. She warns the public that unawareness of aortic dissection can put a family at risk as it can just come out of the blue and be misdiagnosed.
Back at acting but not on dating
While the actress may not be ready for a new physical relationship, she is all geared up to focus on another love of her life that Ritter has brought out in her - her passion for acting.
Yasbeck shared that she is ready to "get my ducks back in a row." She loves acting so much.
As her husband's 20th death anniversary approaches, the actress admits that she is still not over with the grief and the mourning. On her Instagram account, she shared how sad she still gets, especially on Christmas Day and New Year's.
She noted that it still hurts and has even more of a "gut punch" than before. She expressed gratitude to those who understand that people like her who have lost a loved one will always experience the world in the eyes of their lost beloved. She then reminds everyone that friends, family, and strangers are torn up with grief and hanging on by their fingernails, going on and forward because the world goes on. And so, she invites them to "roll into this brand new year with compassion for those who are grieving and make space for the unseen love that walks beside them."
