The hip-hop world is mourning the lack of a trailblazing expertise and beloved mannequin Ananda Lewis, who died Wednesday (June 11). Her sister Lakshmi Emory confirmed the information in a Fb put up.
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“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” Emory wrote. “Lord, relaxation her soul.”
If you’re of a sure age, you’ve got most likely both as soon as emulated or had a full-blown crush on the MTV veejay and BET’s “Teen Summit” host. In recent times she has saved out of the general public eye, however resurfaced saying to followers she had been battling stage 3 breast most cancers in 2020.
She shared the information through an emotional video on Instagram that October, in tandem with Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month. The revelation got here as a shock to many, together with these of her inside circle, as she apologized for maintaining the information to herself, acknowledging that the toll of a most cancers prognosis and her subsequent efforts to fight it have been extremely traumatic.
Lewis, who’s of African American and Native American descent, was born on March 21, 1973, in Los Angeles. She was the daughter of an account supervisor mom and a computer-animation specialist father in Los Angeles. After her dad and mom divorced, her mom moved her and her sister to San Diego, earlier than her mother finally left for Europe. Her first title means “bliss” in Sanskrit (an historical Indic language).
Regardless of battling a speech obstacle, stuttering till she was eight years previous, Lewis’ rise to America’s TV screens started within the mid-90s as a media powerhouse. The Howard College scholar, who even starred as a outstanding love curiosity in R&B group Shai’s music video “Child, I am Yours,” filmed on the HBCU’s campus, auditioned for the on-screen internet hosting gig of BET’s “Teen Summit.”
And the remainder was historical past.
She grew to become the primary host of the favored talk-show that handled the on a regular basis points Black youngsters confronted. The Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks (NAACP) offered the mannequin with an Picture Award for her work on the present earlier than MTV provided her a place as a program host and video jockey (VJ). Regardless of crying “for 3 weeks,” unable to decide, in line with shut sources of Lewis, she took the job with MTV. Lewis would go on to VJ MTV’s “Complete Request Stay” and “Scorching Zone.”
“Prior to now our expertise was typically simply fairly individuals who might learn cue playing cards,” Bob Kusbit, MTV’s senior vp for manufacturing Bob Kusbit informed The New York Instances in 1999. “However once we introduced Ananda to MTV, we determined we have been going to do much more stay tv.”
Her tenure in media continued, interviewing then-First Girl Hillary Clinton and incomes one more NAACP Picture Award in 2001 for her internet hosting chops on MTV’s particular, True Life: I Am Driving Whereas Black.
“In case you do not acknowledge the title Ananda Lewis, it could be since you’re older than 23, or not a hip-hop star, or not a daily supplicant within the land of the velvet ropes,” Century wrote in regards to the 1981 Little Miss San Diego Contest magnificence pageant winner. “Within the final yr, Ms. Lewis has emerged because the hip-hop technology’s reigning ‘It Woman,’ that means she is not only an MTV persona however a lady whose seems and attitudes have made her perpetually in demand.”
Lewis was named in PEOPLE’S “50 Most Lovely Folks” checklist in 2000, and the next yr, she left MTV for a much bigger platform… her personal. She starred in her personal syndicated daytime speak present, “The Ananda Lewis Present,” that debuted on September 10, 2001. Media of us even in contrast her sequence to Oprah Winfrey. Sadly, the timing of its launch was extremely troublesome.
The present debuted the day earlier than the September eleventh terrorist assaults in New York, and the nationwide tragedy, which rightfully so considerably impacted tv programming and viewership, made it troublesome for brand new reveals to seek out their footing and viewers. The present was subsequently canceled after one season.
Lewis herself later spoke about feeling sad with the speak present format and the stress of the profession, mentioning it was a “drowning” expertise for her and that caring for her ailing grandmother additionally influenced her resolution to step away from that highlight. Talking of household, Lewis gave beginning to her son Langston in 2011, her first baby, with Harry Smith, Will Smith’s brother.
The avid animal lover, who had been recognized to incessantly introduce her two pet chihuahuas to interviewers, went on to function co-host of the A&E’s “America’s High Canine.” She was additionally a spokesperson for the Humane Society.
Lewis informed Essence Journal how “breast most cancers entered my life in a really sneaky means,” in a January/February 2025 characteristic.
“I used to be within the bathe one morning in December 2018, and I felt a lump in my breast. Because it was in the identical place that the mastitis had occurred, I hoped it was associated to that,” she recalled. “It was a bit bigger than a pea however positively noticeable. My subsequent step was to get a thermography scan, which makes use of a heat-sensing digital camera to seek out sizzling spots within the physique. Most cancers tends to seem actually sizzling.”
She confessed how “it registered very clearly that one thing was occurring—so in January 2019, I discovered a breast specialist and went in for a biopsy” earlier than, “The physician referred to as me the subsequent day and informed me the fabric got here again as constructive for invasive carcinoma. It was ER/PR constructive, HER2 unfavorable breast most cancers, stage 3.” Lewis added how she’s not “a fearful individual,” so “as a substitute of panicking, I made a sport plan.”
Lewis is survived by her son Langston, her sister Lakshmi, and her dad and mom, Yvonne and Stanley.
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