Many of us remember hearing the news of John Ritter’s unexpected passing in 2003. While rehearsing on the set of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, the actor, six days shy of his 55th birthday, fell ill and was treated for a heart attack, though he was in fact having an aortic dissection.
Now, thanks to ABC, John is returning into the public eye as the subject of Superstar, a documentary series about the lives of “mavericks who shaped American culture.”
One of John’s sons and both of his wives appear in the TV special, which has prompted many viewers to want to learn more about the Three’s Company star’s family life. Keep reading for everything you need to know about John Ritter’s kids and wives.
Who are John Ritter’s kids?
Opening up the ABC docuseries is John’s oldest son, Jason, who recalls his father as “a comedy genius” and “a very loving and supportive dad.” “My dad was always working,” he says. “I think we probably grew up faster than he realized.”
Jason, 41, works as an actor and producer, whom some might recognize as Kevin Girardi in Joan of Arcadia and Pat in Netflix’s Raising Dion. He has three other siblings: Carly, 39, Tyler, 36, and Noah, 23. The acting gene seems to have run in the family, as Tyler, too, followed in John Ritter’s footsteps and has had guest roles on series like Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as recurring roles on Freeform’s Young and Hungry.
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On the other hand, their sister, Carly, is a country singer. She doesn’t seem to have a very public online presence, but a 2013 feature on The Orange County Register writes that she discovered singing while studying abroad at the University of St. Andrews.
Tyler Ritter, Lelia Parma, Nancy Morgan, Jason Ritter and Carly Ritter
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“I kind of finally admitted to myself that [music] was what I wanted to do more than anything,” she explained to the outlet. “People may or may not respond to it, but I think we owe it to ourselves to express what is in us to be expressed. That can be in science, that can be in business, or art — we all have that creativity in us.”
Last but not least is Noah, John Ritter’s youngest child and the only one he had with second wife Amy Yasbeck. Noah was just 5 when his father died and made headlines for coming out as trans in 2017 at the age of 18. Noah describes himself as “a private guy” who doesn’t “use social media anymore,” and both his Twitter and Instagram accounts are protected.
Reflecting on fatherhood in a Superstar clip, John says, “It’s bigger and beyond all of my thoughts on how it would be.”
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John Ritter and Nancy Morgan
Who were John Ritter’s wives?
John was married twice in his life, and both his first wife, Nancy Morgan, and his second wife, Amy Yasbeck, only had great things to say about their husband on the ABC special.
Nancy and John were married for nearly 20 years, from 1977 to 1996, and co-starred in the television movies The Dreamer of Oz and Heartbeat, as well as in the feature film Americathon.
In 1999, John married his Problem Child co-star and on-screen love interest Amy Yasbeck, and the two went on to play couples in several sitcoms. In a TV interview from around the time they started dating, John revealed that “Amy and I really have a good relationship.” “I ask her to call me Mr. Ritter,” he joked.