Cindi Rinehart, known as the 'Queen of Soaps' on Northwest Afternoon, passes away

SEATTLE — Cindi Rinehart, known to viewers as the “Queen of Soaps” on Northwest Afternoon, passed away peacefully Tuesday morning after a brief battle with cancer. She was 75 years old.

Cindi was the co-host of Northwest Afternoon on KOMO 4 for 24 years. When Cindi took the reigns of Northwest Afternoon, the show adopted its familiar format.

For decades, viewers tuned in to Cindi for the latest on all soap operas. She kept track of 10 at one point as she gave her take with her signature sass, wit and humor. Soap opera news was followed by interviews with celebrities, musicians, newsmakers and more.

The show ran the gamut from interviews with President Jimmy Carter to Peter Jennings, then Sen. Barack Obama, Dolly Parton and more.

Cindi lived in Manchester, Washington and was battling several health issues. She was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, had a stroke, aphasia and heart failure, but said in a recent visit to KOMO News she was thankful to the medical experts at Saint Michael Medical Center in Silverdale for keeping her alive.

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Although Cindi was famous for being the Queen of the Soaps, her most memorable interview wasn't a soap star - it was news anchor and talk show legend Barbara Walters.

"We helped her daughter move," Cindi said in a 2017 interview with Seattle Refined. "And because she was moving here, and she asked us not to say exactly who she was or anything and we did that. We moved her and that's how we met."

Cindi and Walters became very good friends and when Northwest Afternoon did a show from New York City - Walters granted her an interview. Rinehart asked her how she got the subjects of her interviews to be so authentic.

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"Barbara was - she's so powerful, and you felt the power when she walked in," she said. "She was so easy to interview because I asked her 'How do you do it? Barbara, how do you get people do be so - cry and be so real?' She said, 'I just simply look at them and think I love you. I love you.' That's what she said in her head when she's interviewing."

Toward the end, reaching the right words were hard for Cindi, but they flowed the easiest when she spoke from the heart.

“It’s hard because I love people so much,” she said. “I do like soaps. I love soaps, but it’s the people who love the soaps.”