Former MTV VJ and talk show host Ananda Lewis has passed away after a courageous fight against breast cancer. She was 52.
The news was shared by both a cousin and her sister, Lakshmi, who took to social media to express their grief, revealing that she died on Wednesday, June 11.
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” her sister wrote alongside broken heart emojis. “Lord, rest her soul.”
“My beautiful, gifted, multitalented, funny, intelligent, witty and brave cousin TV personality Ananda Lewis gained her wings today,” wrote Felece Antoinette on Facebook. “No more pain. Please keep the Lewis family lifted in prayer. RIH Bravebird, I’ll see you on the other side.”
Lewis was diagnosed with ER/PR positive, HER2 negative breast cancer at Stage 3 in 2019 and was open about her journey via social media. That journey included holistic treatment methods versus traditional recommendations of a double mastectomy, full chemotherapy and radiation. In addition to overhauling her lifestyle, she tried techniques ranging from cryoablation and chemotherapy to acupuncture and apheresis while keeping her tumor. In 2024, she revealed in an interview with CNN’s Sara Snider that her cancer had progressed to Stage 4. In ESSENCE’s January/February 2025 issue, Lewis shared her experience with me—from her mother’s breast cancer story (her mother, sister, and cousin are all breast cancer survivors), how she found her own lump, choosing integrative therapies over surgery, to ultimately receiving the Stage 4 diagnosis.
“Stage 4 doesn’t mean to me that all hope is lost and I’m going to die—as many headlines about me have said. It means I have to do bigger things to get it back in check. I’m on regular standard-of-care meds and am continuing the integrative approach, which includes traditional Chinese medicine and more,” she wrote. “When needed, I will go in for more insulin-potentiated chemo. My last PET scan showed that almost all the new areas discovered in October were no longer active. The few areas that remain are significantly reduced in terms of cancer activity. I’m doing really well right now, according to my medical team. And I’m going to work my butt off to make sure I stay that way.”
Lewis noted that the cost of fighting the disease, a temporary loss of insurance, and the pandemic had all impacted her treatment efforts over the past few years. Still, she remained optimistic and unafraid.
“We’re not meant to stay here forever. We come to this life, have experiences—and then we go,” she shared. “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. We all have that right. I know I’ve done the right thing for me. It might not be the right thing for anybody else, but it doesn’t have to be.”
Lewis, who came to fame as a beloved MTV video jockey and for her talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, leaves behind a son.
As someone who had the honor of sharing conversations with Lewis—if only for a short time in her full and groundbreaking life—I’m thinking of her family, especially her son, whom she spoke of so lovingly. She was a phenomenal woman with a beautiful spirit.
