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Beloved TV personality Ananda Lewis has tragically died after battling breast cancer.
Ananda, best known from being a popular host on MTV during the network’s “veejay” era in the late 1990s, sadly passed away yesterday, Wednesday June 11. In October 2020, Ananda announced to fans that she’d been privately battling stage 3 breast cancer for two years and that she’d avoided getting regular mammograms due to her fear of radiation exposure.
Ananda shared during an interview in 2024 that her breast cancer had reached Stage 4 after previously declining to undergo a mastectomy for treatment.
Ananda’s sister Lakshmi has now confirmed the sad news of her sister’s passing on Facebook in an emotional message. She wrote of Ananda, “She’s free and in His heavenly arms [heart emojis]. Lord, rest her soul [prayer hands emoji].”
Lakshmi confirmed that her sister died at her home in Los Angeles at 11:35am and that she was in hospice care at the time of her death. Lakshimi also revealed that Ananda’s 14-year-old son was graduating middle school the same day as the small screen star’s passing, making today very bittersweet, TMZ reported.
She shares the teen boy, her only child, with husband Harry Smith, 54, who is the younger brother of Oscar-winning actor Will Smith, 56.
Many are mourning Ananda’s untimely death on social media, especially on X, formerly Twitter.
One wrote on the platform X: “Omg Rip to the beautiful #AnandaLewis her sister confirmed,the news. If you’re a 90s/early 2000s baby, then you definitely wanted to be her, at some point! The real “It girl”! She just had it!Phuck cancer! Sending love to every person that loved her. Get your rest beauty.”
Another wrote on X: “Ananda Lewis was so iconic. Sleep peacefully angel,” a third penned: “Ananda Lewis was one of the quintessential 90’s baddies RIP.”
As a fixture on MTV in the late 1990s, Ananda hosted hit shows like Total Request Live, Hot Zone and Spring Break. But she left her MTV role in 2001 and began hosting her very own daytime TV talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, which ran for two seasons.
She earned two NAACP Image Awards during her career and was once deemed the ‘the hip-hop generation’s reigning It Girl’ by The New York Times.
Lakshmi said that a memorial would be held ‘in a few weeks’ and that celebrities who Ananda previously interview have already expressed interest in paying tribute to her at the upcoming service.
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