Bob Newhart’s wife Ginnie Newhart has died at 82: Was wed to comedy icon for 60 years

Ginnie Newhart, the longtime wife of comedian Bob Newhart, died Sunday at the age of 82, just three months after the couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

‘We lost our beloved Ginnie Quinn Newhart – Wife, Mother and Grandmother on April 23rd, 2023 after a long battle with illness,’ a statement on Newhart’s Twitter page on behalf of the family read Monday. ‘She was our rock and we miss her terribly.’

Family publicist Jerry Digney confirmed Ginnie’s death in a statement to People Monday.

Bob told the outlet in 2019 how he was fixed up with his longtime love by late actor Buddy Hackett, who was a friend of both.

‘Buddy said, “I’ve got a girl for you,”‘ Bob said. ‘”She’s going with another guy, but I don’t think he’s right for her, so I’m going to fix you up on a blind date. You’ll meet her and you’ll date and you’ll get married. Then you’ll have kids and you’ll call one of the kids Buddy.” Which we did.’

The family confirmed the matriarch’s passing in a statement on social media Monday 

The couple wound up exchanging vows the next year and would go on to have four children.

Bob, speaking with Parade last year, said that keeping things light and funny had been a driving factor in their six-decade union.

‘The marriages of comedians, no matter how stormy, seem to last a long time, and I attribute it to laughter,’ Bob told the publication. ‘No matter how intense the argument you’re having, you can find a line, and then you both look at each other and start laughing. It’s over, you know?

‘I think that sense of humor is very important to the longevity of a marriage.’

Ginnie expressed the same idea while speaking with PBS in 2005 about why marriage between funny people has its upside.

‘Comedians are just fun to be with,’ Ginnie said. ‘They seem to have longevity in their marriages.’

Bob chat with CBS Sunday Morning in 2020 about how supportive a spouse Ginnie had been throughout his career in show business.

‘She’d be in the dressing room,’ he said. ‘She’d say, “Something’s wrong with the sound system. I couldn’t hear anything.” I said, “Honey, nothing was wrong with the sound system. They didn’t laugh!”‘

The pair were seen at the Golden Globes in LA in 1983 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel

The couple was seen in May of 2013 in Las Vegas with the late Don Rickles and his late wife Barbara