Ananda Lewis, beloved television host and former MTV VJ, has passed away at the age of 52. She is survived by her 14-year-old son, Langston.

The news was confirmed by Lewis’s sister, Lakshmi, in a Facebook post shared on Wednesday, June 11. “She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” Lakshmi wrote alongside a black-and-white photo of Lewis.

“Lord, rest her soul ,” she added.

Lewis rose to fame in the late 1990s as one of MTV’s standout VJs, becoming a familiar face on shows like Total Request Live and Hot Zone. In 2001, she stepped away from MTV to launch The Ananda Lewis Show, further cementing her place in daytime television.

In 2020, Lewis publicly revealed she had been diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. At the time, she shared that she had skipped regular mammograms due to fears about radiation exposure.

Her cancer later progressed to stage IV. In a 2024 roundtable discussion with CNN’s Stephanie Elam and anchor Sara Sidner, Lewis said she had declined a double mastectomy despite medical recommendations.

In an essay published in Essence earlier this year, Lewis urged women to be proactive about their health. “I would say to women: Do everything in your power to avoid my story becoming yours. If I had known what I know now 10 years ago, perhaps I wouldn’t have ended up here. I would have been cold plunging, exercising consistently, making sure my vitamin D levels were good, detoxing my body on a monthly and yearly basis, and sleeping better. I would’ve been doing all the things I’ve been forced to do now, to keep my body from creating more cancer and remove what it has already made.”

“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,” she wrote. “We all have that right. I know I’ve done the right thing for me.”

Lewis welcomed her son, Langston, in 2011 with partner Harry Smith. Smith also has a daughter, Sydney, from a previous relationship.