Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Had Two Children With Her Third Husband, Fred

Following the news of her death on July 12, many people are looking back at the enormous impact that Dr. Ruth Westheimer had on both the culture in general and the lives of individual couples. Dr. Ruth, as she was most commonly known, was a sex therapist who eventually went on to host a talk show in which she addressed the conundrums of those who called in.

Dr. Ruth, who was also a survivor of the Holocaust, helped to break down many of the barriers around open discussions of sex in America. Now, following her death, many wanted to know whether she had any children.

Dr. Ruth had two children. She was married twice when she was still quite young, and both of those marriages were very short-lived. Her third marriage was to Manfred "Fred" Westheimer, and that was the marriage she often described as her "real marriage."

Fred was also a Holocaust survivor, and Dr. Ruth often discussed their sex life quite openly.

She and Fred had two children together. The first is Miriam Yael Westheimer, who lived in Israel for six years and works in academia now with a focus on early childhood education. She co-wrote the Focus on Grammar textbooks and created a global course teaching effective English communication. She married Joel Henry Eilenger.

Ruth and Fred's son, Joel Westheimer, is also in academia and works as a professor at the University of Ottawa. He graduated from Princeton University and got his doctorate at Stanford. Clearly, both of Ruth's children shared her passion for education, although they did not focus as much on intimacy as they did on other ways that young people need to be taught. Dr. Ruth also has four grandchildren.

Dr. Ruth jettisoned to fame after an appearance on Late Night With David Letterman, and she hosted a cable show for more than a decade where she discussed issues around sex. She became a household name and was more famous than anyone else in her field at the time. She died at the age of 96 in upper Manhattan, near the synagogue where she was still a member.

"With such a difficult beginning like me, having been an orphan at the age of 10 years old — no parents, no brothers and sisters — all I feel is gratefulness," she once told People of her life.

Few things were out of bounds on Ruth's show, which included frank discussions of everything from oral sex to the more psychological elements of our intimate relationships.

"If you’re facing a problem, don’t tell yourself that you can’t do it," she wrote in The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre. "Convince yourself that you have the strength to deal with almost anything because of the way you were raised. And you do! Recognizing your core strengths is an important step toward having joie de vivre."

Not a bad way to live life in the bedroom and outside of it.