Former MTV veejay Ananda Lewis has shared that her breast cancer has spread and is now stage IV in a heartbreaking interview with CNN on Tuesday (October 15).
The 51-year-old previously opened up about being diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in a 2020 Instagram post, saying that she’d refused mammograms for years over a fear of radiation exposure.
However, during a round-table discussion on cancer with panelists Stephanie Elam and anchor Sara Sidner — who herself was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer this year — Lewis stated she went against her doctors’ recommendation for a double mastectomy after she was diagnosed.
“My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body. I felt like my body is intelligent, I know that to be true. Our bodies are brilliantly made,” Lewis explained.
“I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way,” she shared.
“Looking back on that, I go, ‘You know what? Maybe I should have.”
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Lewis sought homeopathic remedies as well as medication and radiation, and a better sleep schedule and diet. While Lewis improved briefly, last year, the MTV alum discovered her cancer had spread.
“My lymph system really flared up,” Lewis said. “It was the first time I ever had a conversation with death because I felt like: This is how it is.”
“I was just like, ‘Fudge man, I really thought I had this.’ I was frustrated, I was a little angry at myself, and I said, ‘Man, listen. I know you’re coming for me at some point. But I don’t want it to be now. And if you could just wait, I promise when you do come, I’m gonna make it fun for you.’”
“I literally had that conversation laying in my bed. I couldn’t get out of bed for, like, eight weeks,” she added.
Anchor Sidner shared that her own diagnosis made her pursue life’s joys while Lewis shared that was a factor in her decision to not have the double mastectomy: “My quality of life was very important to me … I want to want to be here. So I had to do it a certain way, for me.”
A California native, Lewis turned her desire to work with children into TV stardom. This Howard University graduate got her start on the BET discussion series Teen Summit before moving to MTV. She was an MTV veejay from the late 1990s until 2001 when she left the network to host her own broadcast syndicated television talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show. She was also a correspondent for The Insider from 2004 to 2005.
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