Former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis’ dying wish has been revealed by her family.
Ananda hoped to live until her son’s middle school graduation day. Her sister, Lakshmi Lewis, confirmed to Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, June 12, that “she did exactly that.”
Ananda died just hours before her 14-year-old son said goodbye to middle school and prepared for a new chapter at a local high school.
“I have a 9-year-old I need to be here for,” Ananda previously shared via an Instagram video in October 2020. “I have no intention on leaving him. I don’t want to leave my friends, my family. Hell, I don’t want to leave myself. I like being here.”
On Wednesday, June 11, Lakshmi announced the news of the host’s death at the age of 52.
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” Lakshmi wrote via Facebook at the time. “Lord, rest her soul.”
Although her official cause of death was not revealed, Ananda previously shared her breast cancer journey in an essay for Essence published in January.
“I don’t want to spend one more minute than I have to suffering unnecessarily,” Ananda wrote for the publication. “That, for me, is not the quality of life I’m interested in. When it’s time for me to go, I want to be able to look back on my life and say, ‘I did that exactly how I wanted to.’”
Ananda was a host on multiple MTV shows in the late ’90s and early aughts, including Total Request Live and Hot Zone.
She interviewed countless music stars like Britney Spears, ‘NSync and Destiny’s Child before parting ways with MTV in 2001 to host her own talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show.
After news of Ananda’s death broke, former MTV VJ Dave Holmes shared his favorite memories working with the “coolest, smartest friend.”
“If you went on to know her in real life, what you’d seen was what you got,” he said in an exclusive statement to Us on Thursday. “Funny, driven, inquisitive, impossibly beautiful and stylish, crazy well-connected without ever losing her knack for making everyone feel like they were the most important person in the room.”
That love and appreciation also extended to her closest family members, who will remember her strength and heart during good and bad times.
“She was my stubborn little sister who shone brightly, loved fiercely and was my number one cheerleader,” Lakshmi wrote via Facebook on Thursday. “Hard/headed and tender-hearted…smart as a whip…we finished each other’s sentences. I had her back and she had mine. There are no words to express the depth of the devastation I feel. My life will never be the same, without her. Rest now.”
