Joyce DeWitt clearly remembers the “wonderful” evening she spent with John Ritter weeks before his untimely death.
“It was extraordinarily special because I didn’t know it would be the last time we would hang out together,” she told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview.
DeWitt, 77, stated that he was in New York at the same time as Ritter in August 2003, without his knowledge. Paparazzi alerted her that Ritter was in town, so she called to see if he wanted to hang out.
Hours later, seconds before he was due to leave his hotel room, the late actor called him back and they made plans for that evening.
“If he had called a minute later, I would have been walking toward Lincoln Center to go to the movies,” DeWitt marveled, noting that it was his front cell phone. “I mean, it’s like there’s some divine help that allows us to spend time together.”
They had an unforgettable night with Jim Belushi at an Italian restaurant in the Village.
“We had such a good time,” DeWitt recalled. “It was very valuable and very valuable.”
Ritter died in September 2003 after experiencing chest pains and severe nausea while rehearsing for his sitcom “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”
The player, who was taken to the hospital, was initially treated for a heart attack. He died that night from what was later determined to be an aortic dissection. He was 54 years old.
He and DeWitt starred in “Three’s Company” opposite Suzanne Somers.
Somers died in 2023 at the age of 76 after a long battle with cancer.
The sitcom, which ran for eight seasons from 1977 to 1984, revolved around three single roommates. Episodes often featured misheard conversations, romantic escapades, and sexual innuendos.
DeWitt sees the series as “a contemporary version of a 16th-century comedy, a classic farce.”
The actress praised the sitcom for leaning into sexual innuendos rather than being “explicit” and said, “That would never work for me.”
“When people can laugh about what they’re probably most uncomfortable with when speaking in public and laugh about it together, it gets them one step closer to being comfortable with each other,” she noted.
On Nov. 2, DeWitt and Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, will host a 50th anniversary celebration of “Three’s Company” at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
The event will feature a celebrity-studded reading featuring Jason Biggs, Christine Taylor, Richard Kind, Susie Essman and Richard Kline.
Proceeds will go to the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health, which raises awareness about aortic dissection.