An influential determine from MTV’s heyday, former VJ and discuss present host Ananda Lewis has died at 52. As soon as dubbed “the hip-hop technology’s reigning It Woman” by The New York Instances, Lewis was a steadfast icon and a well-recognized face on the music community all through the late ’90s.
Lewis leaves behind a son, Langston.
Finest recognized for internet hosting MTV’s iconic Whole Request Stay and Scorching Zone within the late ’90s, Lewis left the community in 2001 to launch her personal daytime program, The Ananda Lewis Present.
Lewis’s sister Lakshmi introduced information of her loss of life in a Fb publish shared on Wednesday, June 11.
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” she wrote, alongside a sequence of damaged coronary heart emojis and a black and white portrait of Lewis. “Lord, relaxation her soul.”
Lewis first rose to prominence as an MTV VJ in 1997, showing on cornerstone exhibits like TRL and the community’s every day Prime 10 countdown. She rapidly turned certainly one of MTV’s most recognizable faces, internet hosting a number of topical packages, together with tributes to late singer Aaliyah and a particular addressing the aftermath of the Columbine Excessive College bloodbath.
That very same yr, she was honored with an NAACP Picture Award for her impactful work because the host of BET’s Teen Summit. She would go on to win a second Picture Award in 2001 for internet hosting the MTV particular True Life: I Am Driving Whereas Black.
In 2020, Lewis revealed on Instagram that she had been recognized with stage III breast most cancers. She shared that she had prevented common mammograms on account of a worry of radiation.
In an article she wrote for the January/February 2025 version of Essence, Lewis mirrored on the significance of prioritizing one’s well being. She revealed that, on account of earlier choices, “the most cancers had gone wild in my physique,” and it had progressed to stage IV.
“I encourage folks to take a look at the knowledge and research that exist. Search them out, study from them and apply the modifications to your life, in an effort to proceed to thrive and reside so long as you possibly can. As Black ladies, we have now all types of things we’re not even conscious of that contribute to most cancers impinging upon us. Improve your information about how one can forestall getting right here within the first place. Prevention is the true treatment.”