Kaley Cuoco honours TV dad John Ritter at heart gala

Kaley Cuoco broke down in tears on Saturday night as she paid tribute to John Ritter, the TV father whose death shaped her life and career.

Cuoco spoke at the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health's annual Evening From the Heart Gala, held in Hollywood, to honour the actor more than two decades after his death. Her remarks were reported by Variety on 13 September 2026. The gala supports work on aortic health, the cause of Ritter's death.

She was 16 when she first met Ritter. It was at the table read for "8 Simple Rules", the first full read-through where the cast sits together with the script. Cuoco said Ritter hugged her, took off his jacket, put it on her and told her, "Don't ever wear that again."

She called him "the north star in my career" and someone she adores. Then her voice cracked. "I always cry when I talk about him," she said.

Ritter played her father in the first season of "8 Simple Rules" and in three episodes of the second season before his death at age 54. He suffered a fatal thoracic aortic dissection, a tear in the wall of the body's main artery, while on the set in 2003. The sitcom was cancelled in 2005, and Cuoco later joined "The Big Bang Theory", according to Variety.

Cuoco said Ritter's passing was "one of the worst days of my life." She said she had to remind herself she was not really his kid. For weeks after his death, she felt like she had lost her dad.

For viewers who grew up with the show, that closeness explains why the loss still lands. Cuoco has returned to it often. She posted a tribute to her former TV dad on the anniversary of his death, as reported by Today in 2020, and recalled the day Ritter fell ill on set in the documentary "Superstar: John Ritter", as reported by Newsweek in 2021.

Saturday's gala took place at the Sunset Room in Hollywood, according to Yahoo. Cuoco attended while pregnant with her second child with fiancé Tom Pelphrey.

Twenty-three years on, she still cries when she says his name. That says everything about what he left behind.