Bill Ritter is opening up about how his life has changed since an early-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis ended his long run at the WABC anchor desk. The 76-year-old journalist is spending more time with his family while continuing to report for the New York station he joined in 1998.
Ritter revealed the diagnosis during his final live Eyewitness News broadcast as an anchor on June 12. He told viewers that treatment was keeping the disease “at bay” for the time being, but acknowledged that there is no cure and no guarantee about what comes next.
Leaving the desk did not amount to a complete retirement. Ritter remains part of WABC, where he is mentoring younger journalists and reporting on Alzheimer’s, related conditions, new research and the financial strain that treatment and caregiving can place on patients and families.
His priorities away from work have changed as well. After decades of arriving home around midnight from evening newscasts, Ritter now wants more time with his wife, children and growing family and to create memories with them while he can.
Ritter First Noticed He Was Forgetting Names and Places
Ritter said the first changes appeared approximately two years before he disclosed his diagnosis. While he was still anchoring WABC’s 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, he began having trouble recalling people, names and places. “It was weird,” Ritter told PEOPLE. “In the beginning, it was that feeling of, ‘What’s their name? It’s on the tip of my tongue.'”
His wife, Kathleen Friery, noticed the changes too. The couple began talking with doctors in early 2024 and were initially told that Ritter had mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, which does not always progress to dementia. Ritter reduced his workload and hoped that less stress and more sleep would help.
He first stepped away from the 11 p.m. broadcast and later gave up the 5 p.m. edition, leaving the 6 p.m. newscast as his remaining daily anchor assignment. “I thought getting more sleep would solve everything,” he told PEOPLE. The memory problems continued despite the lighter schedule. By summer 2025, Ritter and Friery sought additional medical opinions, beginning several months of more intensive evaluation.
The testing included cognitive assessments, brain imaging and ultimately a spinal tap. Doctors confirmed early-stage Alzheimer’s in late 2025. When Ritter later discussed the diagnosis on Good Morning America, he said his first thoughts went to his father, Irl, who had lived with Lewy body dementia. “My first reaction was I thought about my dad,” Ritter said. “He just popped into my head, and then a couple of seconds later, I was scared.”
His Treatment Is Intended to Slow the Disease, Not Cure It
Ritter and Friery have said he receives prescribed medication through a monthly infusion intended to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. During his June 12 announcement, he said doctors told him the treatments were keeping the disease “at bay” for the moment.
“But there is no guarantee, because there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s,” Ritter told viewers. Friery told PEOPLE that some differences are already noticeable. Ritter remains recognizably himself, she said, but communicating can take longer than it once did.
Ritter Is Prioritizing His Children and Family Time
Ritter’s diagnosis has also changed how he thinks about time away from the newsroom. For years, his schedule centered on multiple evening broadcasts. He told PEOPLE that after coming home around midnight, he would find his family asleep, move quietly around the house and then wake up to repeat the routine the following day.
“I want to spend more time with them because I didn’t spend all that time before,” Ritter said. He and Friery share daughter Ella, while Ritter also has two adult children, Mia and Owen, from his previous marriage to journalist Janny Scott.
Ritter has talked about kayaking trips, bike rides and afternoons with his family. He wants to be present for Ella’s senior year of high school and spend more time with his grandchildren. “I can’t change my diagnosis. I can’t change what’s ahead,” he told PEOPLE. “But I can make sure the time we have together is filled with memories they’ll carry forever.” He added, “I’m a really lucky guy. I have amazing people around me. They’re what matters.”
His Father’s Dementia Shaped How He Is Facing His Own Diagnosis
His father, Irl, died in 1998 at age 81 after living with Lewy body dementia. Ritter has described spending months traveling to California so he could help care for him toward the end of his life. Ritter told PEOPLE that immediately after hearing his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, he worried less about himself than about what it would mean for Friery and his children.
“My first thought was, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to really be hard on this family,'” he said. He has also been involved with New York dementia-caregiving organization CaringKind for years, beginning after his father’s death.
He Is Still Reporting for WABC
Ritter joined WABC in 1998. He became anchor of the station’s 11 p.m. newscast in 1999 and added the 6 p.m. broadcast in 2001. His departure from daily anchoring ended more than 25 years behind the station’s anchor desk. For 23 of those years, he anchored alongside Liz Cho, whom Ritter described during his farewell as his longtime partner and friend. He said the two were the longest-running on-air anchor team in Channel 7 history.
But his June signoff was deliberately not a complete goodbye. “I’m also going to remain a journalist here at Eyewitness News, and so, you will still see me,” Ritter told viewers. WABC has since launched Bill Ritter Reports: Living With Alzheimer’s, a digital resource built around his continuing reporting and personal experience with the disease.
Ritter is also continuing to mentor younger journalists at WABC. In explaining what he wanted the next phase of his career to accomplish, he said the station planned to examine Alzheimer’s itself. “This station wants to dig deeper into the rising tide of Alzheimer’s, and other similar diseases,” Ritter said during his final anchor broadcast, including “how it’s affecting patients and their families, how the price of treatment and the price of caring for patients is simply unaffordable and how this country might begin to change that.”