Chicago radio and television host Judy Markey, 82, has died by assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic after being diagnosed with an undisclosed neurological disorder in 2024. Her death has drawn attention to her personal decision, which was supported by her family and friends, and to her long-standing public support for assisted dying as a personal choice.

Markey co-hosted WGN-AM’s highly popular Kathy and Judy Show with Kathy O’Malley from 1989 to 2009, later reviving it as a weekly programme until 2017. Known for candid discussions about family life, relationships and ageing, Markey also worked as a journalist and author, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times and Cosmopolitan, and raising two children with her first husband after living in several European cities.