Hattie Wiener, Sex-Positive ‘Oldest Cougar,’ Dies at 88

Hattie Wiener, an ebullient and bawdy former dancer and therapist who found a measure of celebrity in her 70s for sleeping with younger men and promoting what she said were the anti-aging benefits of her lifestyle, died on June 21 at her home in Manhattan. She was 88.

She had been diagnosed with diastolic heart failure, and chose to end her life by refusing food and liquids, said her daughter, Rama Dunayevich.

Tabloids called her the Tinder Granny and the Oldest Cougar in the World, titles she was proud to claim. Ms. Wiener (pronounced WEE-ner) had long been an evangelist for older women having sex with younger men — a practice she began when she divorced in 1984, when she was 48 — and for the health benefits she felt accrued to those who followed her bedtime regimen, activities she promoted in a self-published book, “Sex and the Single Senior” (1990).

But it wasn’t until she was featured in “Strange Sex,” a 2010 documentary series on TLC, that she began to enjoy a sort of B-list fame, appearing as a reliably naughty guest on television shows like “Access Hollywood” and “Dr. Phil.”

“I realized that by sleeping with young men,” she said in “Strange Sex,” “I’m starting my life over again, because my husband was a young man and we had wonderful sex and now I’m repeating the pattern, but not with my husband or anyone his age.”

In that series, TLC filmed her date with an affable electrician and single father of three named Ron who was 40 years her junior. Ms. Wiener dressed with typical flair, in a studded dog collar, a black minidress and a gold bolero jacket; Ron looked like he was dressed for a barbecue. But he was a kindly date, and noted that he was fond of older women because of their confidence and because, as he put it, “They’re not looking for the happy ever after.”