Beloved ABC New York anchor Bill Ritter reveals symptoms he experienced years before Alzheimer’s diagnosis

Veteran ABC New York news anchor Bill Ritter said he started “forgetting people’s names and places” two years before his heartbreaking Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Ritter — who announced he was stepping away from the news desk last week — said his symptoms got to the point that he “didn’t know why” the symptoms were happening, even despite dropping out of anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast.

Bill Ritter’s appearance on “Good Morning America” on Monday. ABC

Ritter announced last week he’d be leaving the news desk in light of the diagnosis. WABC

Although Ritter was able to get “a decent night’s sleep … for the first time in 25 years” with his schedule trimmed down to the 6 p.m. broadcast, his symptoms still “weren’t getting better,” he said.

Upon making that realization, he decided to get tested for the progressive neurodegenerative brain disease.

“That really was an important thing. A lot of people say, ‘I’m fine, don’t worry about it, I’m going to be fine.’ No. You gotta go do this,” he recalled of his decision to seek medical attention.

Ritter said his “first reaction” upon being diagnosed was to think of his father, who died of Alzheimer’s in 1998.

He shared his diagnosis Friday as he announced his retirement after more than a quarter-century as a fixture of New York television news.

“Spending more time with my family has now become even more important, because my life has taken a turn,” he said in the emotional broadcast.

“The treatments I’m getting are keeping it at bay. For now. 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.”