Katey Sagal 'still feels John Ritter around' after seeing him just hours before his sudden death
Katey Sagal has opened up about her co-star John Ritter's death, after being around him just hours before his sudden passing at 54.
Ritter died in 2003, after collapsing on the set of the sitcom 8 Simple Rules. At the time, he was filming the second season of the show, in which he co-starred alongside Sagal. The team had shot three episodes of the new series before the actor's tragic passing.
Sagal, who was doing press with Ritter just hours before, says she still 'feels him around'.
"I just feel him around. His energy and his love of laughter and life," she told Ted Danson on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, adding that he 'brought so much light'.
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“Even though I think he had his darker side too, he just brought so much light that I just feel him around," Sagal added.
Ritter died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection, a life-threatening medical emergency in which a tear in the main heart artery goes unrecognized. It's often mistaken for a heart attack, which is what it was initially believed Sagal suffered from.
Sagal had been doing press with Ritter at 'four in the afternoon', and by 10pm, he had tragically passed.
"It was mind-blowing. It was just really mind-blowing," Sagal said.
The show also where Kaley Cuoco, best known for playing Penny in The Big Bang Theory, had her breakthrough role. At the time, she was just 16 years old.
The now 40-year-old has also recently spoken out about the late star, telling PEOPLE that Ritter 'changed the course of her life'.
"He was there at the beginning for my career. I spent a year and a half with him, but it changed my life, my entire life," Cuoco said.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Sagal spoke about becoming a mother at 52.
The now 72-year-old's husband, Kurt Sutter, 66, told her when they met that he didn't want to have children - where she told him she has 'five minutes left' if he wants to change his mind.
However, she revealed he did in fact have a change of heart after five years, which is when they went through the surrogacy process.
They then welcomed daughter Esmé Louise in 2007.
Esmé is not Sagal's only child, as she is also mother to Sarah Grace, 31, and Jackson, 30, who she shares with her former husband, Jack Cameron White.
Tragically, Sagal experienced a stillbirth in October 1991, three years prior to the birth of Sarah Grace.
The Sons of Anarchy star and her ex-husband, Jack Cameron White, split and finalized their divorce in 2000.
The drummer died in 2024, with the former couple's son Jackson announcing the news on Instagram.
"This guy taught me everything," the Tell Me Lies actor wrote, alongside a series of photos.
"We had ups and downs, as a man has with their father. But in the end it was just love."
Jackson concluded the emotional post: "Big Jack White. 1954-2024. I love you dad forever."
Topics: Celebrity
Kiesha Dosanjh