TV Host Ananda Lewis Dead 8 Months After Sharing Cancer Had Spread

TV talk show host Ananda Lewis, who opted out of a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2019, has died.

The 52-year-old is best known for being an MTV VJ from the late 1990s until 2001 and for her role on the BET young adult talk show Teen Summit. She subsequently hosted a syndicated talk show called The Ananda Lewis Show and was a correspondent for The Insider from 2004 to 2005. She is also known for hosting MTV’s "Total Request Live" and "Hot Zone."

Her sister, Lakshmi Emory, announced the news in a Facebook post on June 11.

“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” she said. “Lord, rest her soul.”

Lewis had initially declined to undergo surgery, and when she was ready to entertain the thought of a double mastectomy, the Los Angeles resident was unable to schedule the procedure during the pandemic lockdowns because she said a doctor deemed it a non-emergency.

"He said, 'Listen, unfortunately, I can't schedule you for anything because right now they're not scheduling any non-life threatening surgeries,'" Lewis said in Oct. 2024. "'They're only doing emergency surgeries with how the hospitals are all shut down and a tumor on your breast isn't killing you right now.' He literally said that to me and he said, 'I don't know when I'll be able to schedule you.'"

Lewis was the mother of one son whom she had with her former partner, Harry Smith, who is actor Will Smith's brother.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2019, Lewis said her life with Smith began to "implode."

"I did my MRIs," she said. "I did all the things that the doctors needed to look more deeply at my condition to see what I was supposed to do. That process ended in April, maybe, and my life started imploding...I was in the middle of my relationship falling apart that I was in for 10 years with a man I loved who I had a child with and lived with."

Neither her sister nor Smith responded to requests for comment by publication time.

Lewis further said in a phone interview that she had spent some $200,000 on integrative treatments, such as cryoablation and insulin potentiation therapy, which were not fully covered by her health insurance. As a result, Lewis paid $78,000 out of pocket and was only reimbursed $6,000.

"The lockdown was still happening, so I couldn't access stuff and when I finally could again, I started to a little less aggressively because I'd run out of money to pour into it," Lewis added. "At that time, obviously, I was a single mom. I wasn't getting child support, and I was holding it together all myself ... there wasn't a lot of money left over for me to do a lot of the treatments I wanted to do."

Under IPT, patients are tested to determine which chemotherapy will be most effective, and then fractionated chemo and insulin are administered. Fractionated refers to the chemo being administered in smaller doses.

Lewis announced her cancer had spread in October 2024.

“Between January and October of 2023 is when everything went nuts,” she said. “That’s when I hit stage 4, and it went to my spine, my hips, and a tiny bit in my liver.”