Former MTV presenter and talk show host Ananda Lewis has died at the age of 52.
The LA-born star announced in October last year that her breast cancer had progressed to stage four.
Eight months on and six years since her diagnosis, Lewis’ family have announced her death.
Lewis’ cousin Felece Antoinette wrote on Facebook: ‘My beautiful, gifted, multitalented, funny, intelligent, witty and brave cousin TV personality Ananda Lewis gained her wings today. No more pain.
‘Please keep her sister Lakshmi LS Emory and the entire Lewis family lifted in prayer.
‘RIH Bravebird, I’ll see you on the other side.’
Lakshmi, Lewis’ sister, also shared the news with a brief, heartbroken statement, which read: ‘She’s free, and in His heavenly arms. Lord, rest her soul.’
Lewis is survived by her son, Langston, whom she welcomed in 2011 with Harry Smith — the brother of Will Smith.
The TV star rose to prominence in the late 90s as an MTV video jockey, where she hosted shows like Total Request, MTV Live, and Hot Zone, before moving to her own talk show The Ananda Lewis Show in 2001.
In 1999 the New York Times called her ‘the hip-hop generation’s reigning It Girl’.
Lewis attended Howard University in Washington DC, where she spent time as a youth activist; work which inspired her to audition for BET’s Teen Summit, a series focused on social issues affecting young Black people, which she ended up hosting.
Since her time on MTV during its heyday, Lewis served as a correspondent on CBS’s The Insider and made various guest appearances on US shows.
When announcing her diagnosis in 2020, Lewis confessed to having ignored medical advice, which she called a ‘mistake’.
‘For a really long time, I have refused mammograms, and that was a mistake,’ Lewis said then.
‘I watched my mom get mammograms for 30 years almost, and at the end of that, she had breast cancer, and I said, “Huh. Radiation exposure for years… breast cancer. Yeah, I’m going to pass. Thanks anyway.”‘
She urged other women not to follow her lead.
‘I need you to share this with the women in your life who may be as stubborn as I was about mammograms and I need you to tell them that they have to do it,’ Lewis said in her announcement.
‘Early detection, especially for breast cancer, changes your outcome. It can save their life.’
In October, Lewis discussed her diagnosis with her friend, CNN’s Stephanie Elam.
‘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.’
Lewis found a lump a little larger than a pea in her breast while in the shower in December 2018.
In an essay for Essence in January, Lewis wrote: ‘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.’
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