Ananda Lewis the former MTV VJ and talk show host passed away from breast cancer. The news was confirmed by her sister Lakshmi Emory, who posted a tribute on Facebook. No further details were available. Lewis was 52.

We met Lewis in a sit-down virtual interview in October 2020, not long after she revealed in an Instagram post that she had stage 3 breast cancer after conducting a self-exam.

“I knew I wanted to do it during Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” she explained at the time as her reason for sharing her health journey publicly. “I do all my own editing, so it was a process of making it exactly what I wanted to present and nothing more—not wasting too much time talking. And really I didn’t start having doubts posting it up until the day I was posting it.” Lewis said she had not been feeling well during those moments, but shared the “calm” she felt disclosing her diagnosis that she had known two years prior. “I wanted people not to repeat my mistake,” she said, referencing early detection and timely mammograms.

Remembering Ananda Lewis

Career

Lewis hosted “Teen Summit” – a series that focused on social issues affecting young Black Americans – for three seasons. With a co-host, she interviewed everyone from basketball legend Kobe Bryant to Hillary Clinton.

Following the success and notoriety that Lewis achieved from “Teen Summit,” she took on a new job as a host and “video jockey” at MTV in 1997. “Lewis was a fixture on MTV’s programming during part of the network’s lineup in the ’90s, appearing on “MTV Live” as host, among other titles. Lewis rose to fame hosting “Total Request Live” and “Hot Zone” on the network in its heyday.

Lewis maintained her passion for advocacy throughout her career. While at MTV, she moderated forums on school violence after the Columbine school shooting and hosted MTV’s news special “True Life: I Am Driving While Black” in 1999.

Since then, Lewis served as a correspondent on CBS’s “The Insider” and made guest appearances on TV shows such as “Celebrity Mole: Yucatán” and “America’s Top Dog.”

Lewis also had her own talk show, “The Ananda Lewis Show,” from 2001 to 2002, hosting over 250 episodes.”

The Howard University alum revealed in October of last year that her cancer had progressed to stage IV.

Lewis is survived by her son Langston, 14, whom she shared with Harry Smith, brother of actor Will Smith.

Ananda Lewis will be missed and our hearts and prayers go out her family, friends and loved ones.

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