ABC New York anchor Bill Ritter’s wife describes confronting him over Alzheimer’s symptoms
Bill Ritter’s wife, Kathleen Friery, was “nervous” to confront her husband when she began noticing Alzheimer’s symptoms.
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The 63-year-old, who has been married to the ABC New York anchor since 2008, explained to People on Wednesday that she didn’t want “to say anything” and “be the one to bring it up.”
However, she told the outlet, “When I did, Bill didn’t dismiss my concerns. He said. “Oh, yeah. I’m feeling it.’”
Ritter, 76, noted that “in the back of [his] head, [he] knew something was happening.”
The journalist recalled, “It was weird. In the beginning, it was that feeling of, ‘What’’s their name? It’s on the tip of my tongue.’”
He was able to “breeze past it” because “who doesn’t have that from time to time?”
Ritter went public with his diagnosis and stepped down from his job in June, two years after finding out he was battling the disease.
“It’s ‘early stage’ Alzheimer’s, and they say the treatments I’m getting are keeping it at bay. For now,” he explained. “But there is no guarantee, because there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s. So, unless someone finds an amazing cure, and soon, tonight will be the last newscast I anchor.”
At the time, he added, “Spending more time with my family has now become even more important, because my life has taken a turn.”
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He went on to tell “Good Morning America” viewers that his first symptom was “forgetting people’s names and places.”
On Wednesday, Ritter noted that his Alzheimer’s was initially dismissed as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), “which can sometimes be an on-ramp to Alzheimer’s, but sometimes it’s not.”
Ritter and Friery, who was “watching [her partner] like a hawk,” noticed more memory loss — and met with other doctors in the summer of 2025 for more testing.
“When we finally heard Alzheimer’s, there was this sense of, ‘Okay, so we’re not crazy. This thing is real,’” Friery remembered.
As for Ritter, who takes a monthly infusion to slow the disease, his “first thought” was, “It’s going to really be hard on this family. What is it going to mean for us and what do we do?”
He is the father of daughter Ella, 17, with Friery, as well as Mia, 33, and Owen, 31, with ex-wife Janny Scott.
Ritter doesn’t “wallow very well” and quickly decided he needed to “deal with this” setback — and Friery has “never been more proud” of him.
“It would be natural for us to focus on loss, and he’s not doing that at all. It’s just not his way,” she told People. “I’m in awe.”
