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Very sad news today out of the entertainment industry:
Ananda Lewis, who rose to fame as an MTV VJ in 1997 when she was hired to host shows such as Total Request Live and Hot Zone, has passed away.
She was 52 years old.
The awful development was confirmed via Facebook by the late star’s sister, Lakshmi, who wrote on June 11:
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” Lewis’s siblings wrote alongside a series of broken heart emojis and a black and white portrait of Lewis. “Lord, rest her soul.”
Lewis announced in a 2020 Instagram post that she had been diagnosed with stage III breast cancer.
She said back then that she had not been getting regular mammograms due to her fear of radiation.
In October 2024, Lewis took part in a round table discussion with CNN’s Stephanie Elam and CNN anchor Sara Sidner in which she revealed that she went against medical advice and did not have a double mastectomy after she learned of this illness.
The VJ’s tumor had metastasized, and her cancer had progressed to stage IV, she shared.
Sadly, Lakshmi confirmed to TMZ Hip Hop on Wednesday Ananda died from stage 4 breast cancer at 11:35 AM on Wednesday while in hospice at her Los Angeles home.
Lewis was born in Los Angeles and raised in San Diego.
She graduated cum laude from Howard University in 1995 and soon became the voice of BET’s Teen Summit… where she talked pressing issues impacting young Black Americans and memorable interviewes with figures such as Hillary Clinton.
In 1999, The New York Times dubbed Ananda Lewis “the hip-hop generation’s reigning It Girl.”
She left MTV in 2001 to host her own talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, which only ran for one season.
In an essay she published in Essence in January, Lewis emphasized that “prevention is the real cure” for cancer, and urged women to pay attention to their bodies.
This is what she wrote in the piece:
“We’re not meant to stay here forever. We come to this life, have experiences — and then we go. 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.’”
Lewis took a hiatus from TV and later appeared as a host on The Insider, a spin-off of Entertainment Tonight.
She also appeared on the reality series Celebrity Mole: Yucatán and hosted A&E’s America’s Top Dog and TLC’s While You Were Out.
Ananda Lewis is survived by her son. May she rest in peace.
Ananda Lewis Cause of Death: Former MTV VJ Gone at 52 was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
