Ananda Lewis, a TV host who came to prominence as a VJ on MTV, has died.
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,“ her sister, Lakshmi Emory, said in a Facebook post Wednesday. ”Lord, rest her soul.”
Lewis, 52, had Stage 4 breast cancer.
The MTV personality started out hosting “Teen Summit” on BET in the ’90s, where she interviewed first lady Hillary Clinton.
As an MTV VJ, she hosted “Total Request Live” and “Hot Zone,” interviewing the pop stars of the day, including Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child and NSync.
She once made her feelings known about the decision to feature scantily clad women in a Q-Tip music video in an interview with the rapper.
“That’s a moment I really regret on TV,” she said in an interview with Atlanta Black Star, describing how Prince called her after she criticized Q-Tip on air.
Lewis, a Los Angeles native who grew up in San Diego, left MTV to host her own talk show, “The Ananda Lewis Show,” in 2001 and 2002.
While she initially pursued alternative treatment for breast cancer, she would eventually change her mind about her resistance to traditional treatment and cancer screening.
Doctors had recommended Lewis undergo a double mastectomy, but she had decided against it.
“My plan, at first, was to get out excessive toxins in my body,” Lewis said in a 2024 appearance on CNN. “My body is intelligent, I know that to be true ... I decided to keep my tumor and work it out of my body a different way. Looking back on that, I go ‘you know what? Maybe I should’ve ...’”
Lewis was later told her cancer had metastasized to Stage 4.
“It was the first time I ever had a conversation with Death,” she said. “Because I felt like ‘this is how it ends.’”
Lewis addressed her diagnosis — then Stage 3 cancer — in a 2020 Instagram post.
“I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years,” she said at the time. “For a really long time, I have refused mammograms and that was a mistake.”
Ananda Lewis with NSync in 2000.Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Lewis explained that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer after having mammograms for 30 years, and she thought there was a correlation between the radiation from the tests and the cancer.
She would learn that the amount of radiation generated by regular mammograms is much less than the amount generated by the PET scans she later had.
“For me it was important to come to you and admit where I went wrong with this because it could help you or someone you know,” she said in the video.
Lewis used her experience to urge people not to follow her example.
“I need you to get your mammograms,” she said.
“I wish I could go back,” Lewis said, growing emotional in the clip. “I have a 9-year-old I need to be here for. I have no intention of leaving him.”
After her talk show, Lewis was a host on the entertainment news show “The Insider” starting in 2004 and appeared on “Celebrity Mole: Yutcatán” the same year.
She was also a co-host of “America’s Top Dog” on A&E and hosted the TLC home makeover show “While You Were Out” in 2019.
Stories by Amy Kuperinsky
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