Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Aww that sucks

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Apparently she was diagnosed with the cancer 5 years ago, but instead of doing surgery, she opted for non-traditional treatment and the cancer worsened to stage 4 and spread.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Wow. I just so happened to do an updated search on her about 2 months ago and I do recall that she was at risk with this, but there didn't appear to be any major concern after some supposed treatment(s).
Like some guys, I first knew her for BET (The "Teen Summit" show) and I remember a lot of my friends and relatives kept thinking she was Tatyana Ali (Ashley from Fresh Prince) It was cool to eventually see her on MTV and, to some extent, making history for being the first Veejay who worked at both MTV & BET.
After she left MTV, I was real hyped to find out that she was about to have her own daytime talk-show on syndicated TV. Unfortunately, that show was NOT for my demographic! It seemed to cater more to senior citizens (Very surprisingly) but just one week into her show, 9/11 happened. And although she did do a great Post-9/11 episode that dealt with the tragedies. That was it. The show was gone after that. That was my last time seeing her.

RIP, Beauty

Just remembered that MTV went to Skywalker Ranch for a celeb-showing of Phantom Menace. She was the host of that and I'm sure I still got that special on tape somewhere.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Is that supposed to be one of MTV's first Black VJs?

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Downtown Julie Brown and Bill Bellamy were there before her.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Had a massive crush on her in the 90s when she was an MTV VJ.

Read about her health struggles a while back, and it's really heartbreaking that she went the woo-woo route instead of getting actual treatment that could have saved her life.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

oh man, that's horrible.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...2d0523c5f5.jpg
JJ Jackson

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Well, she is much closer to being one of the first Black VJs than she is to being one of the first VJs, as the Variety post describes her.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

RIP and too young to die

I remember her back when MTV had videos and music programming.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Damn, remember her being on MTV all the time during junior high/high school. RIP.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

Also Ed Lover and Doctor Dre of yo mtv raps


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...3fc6044dea.jpg

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

J.J. Jackson before that. He was an OG VJ.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

I had an acquaintance who did the preemptive mastectomy a few years ago because it ran in her family. She still developed breast cancer and is going through chemotherapy right now. :shrug: I'm sad that Ananda regretted her decision, but there's also a quality of life aspect to it that I can respect.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

This one hurts.

Regardless of your musical preference back in the 90s... you knew her name.

Re: Former MTV host and Veejay Ananda Lewis dead at 52
 

My aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer young. She beat it once and it came back over a decade later. She beat it again and had a double mastectomy. It came back over a decade later again. She’s was 67 (72 now) and didn’t want to do the chemo or radiation again. It was too much for a third time so she’s just going to live her life. Fuck cancer.