After Alzheimer's diagnosis former WABC anchor Bill Ritter talks about his life today

On June 12, Bill Ritter announced that he was stepping down as anchor of the 6 p.m. edition of WABC/7's "Eyewitness News." Over 4½ minutes at the end of the broadcast, he explained why, beginning with this: "My life has taken a turn," he said. "After a series of tests, my doctors have told me I have Alzheimer's."

It was a genuine shocker, notably for a business that prefers to stage-manage its shockers. Here was the most popular anchor on New York's most popular newscast — a fixture at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. over the century so far — calling it quits, just like that. Gone in a minute, and for good, at least from this anchor chair.

But it was also a deeply human moment. Ritter, 76, had just unveiled his vulnerability, his mortality. We aren't accustomed to seeing our anchors as fellow humans, necessarily, but as part of some otherwise faceless corporate hierarchy. Except for once this wasn't a decision forced by ratings, or malevolent bosses. (Ritter stepped down from the 5 and 11 p.m. broadcasts last year.)

According to the Alzheimer's Association, the number of people 65 and older who will have Alzheimer's is expected to nearly double by 2050, to 13.8 million people. Many people already know someone — a family member, a friend, a colleague — suffering from the disease. And many also wonder: What about me?

So, in that instance, on that late spring day, Bill Ritter had suddenly — abruptly — joined the ranks of us.

What led to his decision? How advanced had his Alzheimer's become? What lies in his future?

Newsday visited him at his home in East Quogue in late July to ask these questions, while his wife, Kathleen Friery — a veteran network TV news producer — joined in the conversation.

"I'm very proud of how Bill is choosing to deal with this, and to not shy away from it, and to talk openly about it. But it is challenging for our family," she said. (Ritter has two adult children, while he and Friery also have a 17-year-old daughter.)

Nevertheless, she added,"this unexpected thing has happened where we really have been the recipients of this outpouring of love and support, which is definitely helping. It kind of strangely restored my faith in humanity [laughs]. But I was unprepared for how lovely and supportive people have been across the board."

Friery said she first noticed something was wrong in 2023. "I can't say that there was a certain day or certain incident, but maybe just forgetting more, and more words," she said, "but he was still working three shows. Then we did some preliminary testing at the end of 2023, and those [results] came back mild cognitive impairment [MCI]. So we kind of put it on the shelf, and thought — he's mid-70s, working hard, still completely capable of doing his job. It wasn't until 2025, and he had stopped doing the 11 and the 5, and we thought — maybe a good night's sleep would help.

"But then we realized, this isn't really getting better."

There is one silver lining, if you care to call it that: Friery said the doctors "are quite confident that it will progress slowly. They don't see this as rapid, so we're very happy about that."

The following interview with Ritter was edited for clarity and length:

Can you pinpoint the time when you knew you had Alzheimer's?

Yeah, it was actually last summer, right about now, when I started talking to doctors [and] they finally said, all right, let's really get down to it here. After a lot of tests, finally in October, they did a spinal tap [a so-called lumbar puncture and CSF biomarker, which measures the level of Alzheimer's-related proteins, mainly amyloid and tau]. And they said, OK, you have this [Alzheimer's].

Do you remember the first time you started to suspect something?

I get a little verklempt when I talk about this but it was in 2024. Because I just thought to myself, 'what did I just do here?' I had forgotten something, and it wasn't the keys or anything else. It was not like that. I just couldn't remember anything. You know, we have iPads and iPhones — things where you can look up something quickly — oh, I forgot that guy's name, so just look it up — which is not that unusual, but that's not usual for me.

No one besides you and Kathleen had noticed?

No one else had said this at all, and I did pretty well. I mean, I wrote my own copy, and had that on television [the teleprompter]. There were no bad things happening, and no one at the station ever said, 'hey what's wrong with you? Are you OK? Want to go to a doctor…?' It was us who really sort of figured this out. As we've seen, people often let it go on for years. We didn't. The stakes are so high, going on television, so I thought I have to figure out a way forward, because it's the opposite of what you propose to do every day, which is to report the news [accurately]."

You always worked pretty hard — three shows a day for 25 years and a long career before that, at "20/20," then as an anchor and reporter in California. What was your memory like over those years?

I would say I had a pretty good memory about a lot of stuff [but] looking back [recently], I could say a bunch of things that made sense to people, even if I forgot what the original thing I was saying was or what I was going to talk about. One of my doctors told us, "You know you have this great ability to compensate … ."

Did this 'compensation' ever kick in on the air?

I remember making a couple of mistakes and my friends would always say, 'well, we all do that once in a while. No big deal.' But Kathleen was very cognizant of what was happening, and I could not ignore it. As a journalist, as a reporter, you want to be truthful, and if you can't be truthful then what are you doing? And I thought, God, I have this problem, and I don't want anyone to ever be in a position where they're not getting the best newscasts they can get. But it hadn't happened yet.

It was probably four years ago you told me 'I'm working too hard' and that you wanted to step back, then last year you dropped the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts after a 25-year run. If you hadn't had this diagnosis, when had you planned to retire?

Oh, yeah, I was baked. All things being equal, by June of next year, I would have probably retired.

I'm struck by the coincidence that you're leaving the broadcast 25 years after your predecessor Bill Beutel stepped down and he also had mild cognitive impairment at the time. [Beutel died in 2006, at 75 years old, of Lewy body dementia.] Did his example impact your decision?

You could see [Beutel's decline] and people in the station knew it. We all knew it. But he had just turned 70, by the way — two weeks after his 70th birthday when he retired, and five, 6½ years later for me, so that's a big difference. But the issue was he really wanted to keep working and so he went on a trip to Africa with a producer but he couldn't remember how to pronounce the name of the place he went to. He had a hard time pronouncing it when he went on the air. So he had the producer write the name on a big piece of paper so he could remember it. After he retired I took that piece of paper and I put it on my desk, and had it there for all these years. I remember thinking to myself, I don't ever want to be in this situation. I threw it out when we moved buildings [from Columbus Avenue to 7 Hudson Square]. But how would I know that a year and a half later … [he pauses]. But Bill was on my side — totally. When I first came in to talk to him [about the anchor role] he said "I'm glad they picked you … ."

This all happened very quickly but for you it must have been overwhelming — a 15-year career as an investigative print reporter, and 40 more years after that on TV came to an end late on a June afternoon, with no warning. I was struck by just how poised you were that day, but it must have been preceded by a lot of discussion and front loaded with a lot of emotion.

Yeah, it was very tough [but] it was all secret. My producer for 25½ years, Zahir Sachedina, didn't know. That day, at 2 p.m., I gathered with all the people in the studio and talked to them for 10 minutes. Similar to what you saw on the air but much more informal … . They were just so stunned. For the [on-air announcement], I was so in the zone because I didn't want to be [emotional]. I wanted people to hear why I was doing this and that this is my decision, and why it's happening, and "Let's all work together to make this happen … ."

So clearly, your WABC story didn't end with that dramatic announcement. Following a big viewer reaction, both you and the station have decided to mount a series of public service initiatives about Alzheimer's.

The whole thing has exploded in a good way that, I think, surprised us. My boss [station president Marilu Galvez] called a meeting and said "We didn't expect this and we have to be able to really go with this … ." It is important stuff. People want information, so we have done something. People want to talk about this, people who have dealt with their parents or their spouses, and doing it on their own — people without money trying to figure out how are we going to pay for all this stuff? And if we can't, then what's going to happen? We're opening that channel. There will be double the number of people who have Alzheimer's over the next 20 years [and] what are we going to do about that? We are at a position [at Ch. 7] where we can make something happen.

Besides these Alzheimer's information initiatives, what else are you going to do? Visit with your grandkids?

Yes, I have three children, one grandkid and one on the way. ...  Plus, I've worked with an organization called YAI [formerly the Young Adult Institute, which works with people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities]. My parents had a disabled child who survived only two weeks in a hospital. And since my dad died, I've worked with the Alzheimer's Association. [Ritter's father, Irl, died of Lewy body dementia in 1998.]

Can you talk about what on-air or off-air projects are in the works?

We are working on some things, which I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to talk about yet. But we are making deals to get people on board with this, and give them opportunities to think about this. … It really is so exciting, and I will play a role. It's something I never thought I would do. People call me all the time, and want to talk about ''What can I do?" with things like testing, and I say talk to your doctor because I'm not a doctor and don't pretend to be a doctor. But I am a reporter and I'm incredibly curious about all this.