MTV's Ananda Lewis Dies at 52

Ananda Lewis, the former MTV VJ who hosted Total Request Live and Hot Zone before heading the short-lived The Ananda Lewis Show, died at home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. She was 52. Lewis died of breast cancer, which she'd reportedly been fighting since 2019. She was initially diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, but opted against the double mastectomy recommended by doctors, per NBC News. In a January 2025 op-ed for Essence, Lewis went into her cancer journey in great detail, sharing how after "watching the conventional journeys through breast cancer of my mom and my cousin" she decided to target the "environmental and lifestyle factors [that] influence 90% of what causes cancer."

In Lewis' case, that meant eliminating alcohol and sugar from her diet, monthly ultrasounds, high-dose vitamin C IVs, hyperbaric chamber sessions, and qigong exercise. As things progressed, she tried treatments ranging from cryoablation ("an FDA-approved procedure that injects gas into the tumor to kill cancer cells by freezing them") to/ genetically targeted fractionated chemotherapy. In October, she revealed her cancer had progressed to stage 4 and that she was no longer a candidate for surgery or chemotherapy, per Today. In a Facebook post, Lewis' sister says, "She's free, and in His heavenly arms. Lord, rest her soul."

A Howard University graduate, Lewis began her career with BET's youth-hosted talk show Teen Summit. Her exposure only grew when she was hired by MTV in 1997. She left the network in 2001 to pursue her own show. After it ended in 2002, Lewis joined Entertainment Tonight spinoff The Insider from 2004 to 2005. She later left television to work as a carpenter and a contractor, experience that came in handy when she returned to TV to host the 2019 reboot of TLC's While You Were Out, per Variety. She leaves behind one son. (More obituary stories.)