Former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis has opened up about her battle with breast cancer, and reveals that the disease has advanced to stage 4 after she initially refused a double mastectomy.
The 51-year-old shared the update during a CNN interview with Stephanie Elam and Sara Sidner, who is also battling breast cancer, on Tuesday.
"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 said. "I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way. Looking back on that, I go, 'You know what? Maybe I should have.'"
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Lewis said she pursued holistic healing approaches over the past few years, including "aggressive homeopathic therapies" and also made changes to her diet and sleep habits.
She also received traditional treatments, including medication and radiation, as per an ESSENCE report.
Although Lewis initially saw some improvement, her cancer has eventually progressed to stage 4, and is getting serious by the day.
"My lymph system really flared up. And so, all through my abdomen, all those lymphs were very flared up, my collar bone," Lewis said. "It was the first time I ever had a conversation with death because I felt like, 'This is how it ends.'"
In Reflecting on that experience, Lewis described moments where she was heavily frustrated and angry, but said she later came to terms with her situation. "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.'"
Lewis first disclosed her cancer diagnosis in 2020. At the time, doctors recommended she undergo a mastectomy, but the former TV host declined, and sought a treatment path that aligned with her values.
"There are certain things I know I'm not gonna be OK with, and I know myself. I want to want to be here, and so, I had to do it a certain way, for me," she said.
Lewis also admitted that she avoided mammograms for years out of fear of radiation and that it was a wrong call on her part. "If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would have caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self-exam and thermography," she said. "And they would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable, where the treatment of it would have been a little easier."
Ananda Lewis shares a son with Harry Smith, the brother of actor Will Smith in Langston, who was born back in 2011. In 2020, she revealed that her son was her motivation to keep fighting, and that she would do everything possible to remain at his side.
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"I have a 9-year-old I need to be here for," Lewis said in an Instagram video. "I have no intention of leaving him. I don't want to leave any of my kids."