Former MTV host Ananda Lewis has died after a battle with breast cancer. She was 52.
The news was confirmed by Lewis’ sister, Lakshmi, in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” she wrote. “Lord, rest her soul 🙏🏽”
Others, including CNN’s Stephanie Elam, paid tribute to the Total Request Live host. “She got dressed in my dorm room,” Elam said in an Instagram post. “Her first day on the air on MTV, I was there – just off camera – to cheer her on.”
Lewis revealed in Oct. 2020 that she had been diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, but she opted to stave off traditional medical treatments for the disease for alternative methods.
In an Instagram post at the time, she said her fear of radiation prevented her from getting regular mammograms. She then revealed in a 2024 CNN interview with Elam that she had went against a doctor’s orders for her to have a double mastectomy. As a result, the tumor had metastasized and she progressed to a Stage IV diagnosis.
“My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body. I felt like my body is intelligent, I know that to be true. Our bodies are brilliantly made,” Lewis said. “I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way. I wish I could go back. It’s important for me to admit where I went wrong with this.”
In an essay published in Essence magazine in January, Lewis further turned her attention to awareness and prevention, urging women that “prevention is the real cure” for cancer.
“We’re not meant to stay here forever. We come to this life, have experiences—and then we go,” she wrote. “Being real about that with yourself changes how you choose to live. I don’t want to spend one more minute than I have to suffering unnecessarily. That, for me, is not the quality of life I’m interested in. When it’s time for me to go, I want to be able to look back on my life and say, ‘I did that exactly how I wanted to.’”
Upon joining MTV in 1997, Lewis became one of the network’s most popular on-air talents, frequently palling around with celebrities such as NSYNC and Britney Spears on and off the screen.
She left the network in 2001 to host her eponymous talk show, premiering Sept. 10, 2001. The show lasted one season. “It was a matter of proving to myself that I can do [this],” Lewis said about the venture in an interview with Teen People, People reported.
Lewis appeared in several other hosting gigs with A&E and TLC, as well as reality TV appearances on Celebrity Mole: Yucatán among others. Lewis welcomed son Langston in 2011 with Harry Smith, who is the brother of actor Will Smith.
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