Ananda Lewis, a renowned former MTV video jockey and talk show host, has died following a prolonged fight with breast cancer at the age of 52. The news was shared by her sister, Lakshmi, in a brief Facebook post on June 11. She expressed her grief by stating that Lewis was now free and in the arms of the divine.
Lewis’s death comes nearly five years after she publicly disclosed her Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in an Instagram post in October 2020. In the post, she expressed her hope that her experience would encourage at least one woman to get a mammogram. She revealed that she had been diagnosed two years prior.
In a later interview with CNN in October 2024, Lewis discussed her decision to forgo a double mastectomy, hoping to eliminate toxins from her body naturally. She expressed regret over this decision as her cancer progressed to Stage 4. She also emphasized the importance of prevention, calling it the “real cure” in an issue of Essence published earlier this year.
Lewis first rose to fame in 1997 when she was hired by MTV as a video jockey. She hosted several popular shows on the network, including “Total Request Live” and “Hot Zone.” In 2001, she left MTV to host her own daytime talk show, “The Ananda Lewis Show,” which ran for one season. Lewis later admitted that launching her own show may have been premature and described the experience as “overkill.”
After a brief hiatus from television following the cancellation of her show, Lewis returned to the small screen as a correspondent for “The Insider,” a spin-off of “Entertainment Tonight,” from 2004 to 2005. She also appeared on the reality TV series “Celebrity Mole: Yucatán,” and hosted the A&E show “America’s Top Dog” and TLC’s “While You Were Out.”
In 2023, following the closure of MTV News, Lewis reflected on her time at the network, praising it as a “pillar of creative and diverse speech.” She noted that MTV News had the unique ability to cover stories that no other outlet could.
Lewis is survived by her son, Langston, whom she had in 2011 with Harry Smith, the younger brother of Will Smith.