Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes will forever admire the heart and talent of Ananda Lewis.
“Watching Ananda felt like checking in with your coolest, smartest friend,” Holmes, 54, exclusively shared with Us Weekly on Thursday, June 12. “If you went on to know her in real life, what you’d seen was what you got. 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.”
Ananda’s sister, Lakshmi Lewis, announced the news of the host’s death via social media on Wednesday, June 11. She was 52.
“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” Lakshmi wrote via Facebook. “Lord, rest her soul.”
While her official cause of death was not revealed, Ananda previously shared her breast cancer journey in an essay for Essence that was published in January.
According to Holmes, the news of Ananda’s death prompted many former colleagues to reminisce about the positive memories they shared while working together at MTV.
“The MTV crew from the Ananda Lewis era — the few you saw on camera and the many many more behind — was a family, and today we’re all getting in touch and sharing memories of her and catching back up with each other in a way I know she would love,” Holmes shared with Us. “She was one in a trillion, and everyone loved her, and they’ll all say the same: you weren’t wrong. Ananda Lewis really was your coolest, smartest friend.”
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, Destiny’s Child and Brandy before parting ways with MTV in 2001 to host her own talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show.
For Holmes, who is now an editor at large at Esquire, he was the runner-up on MTV’s first Wanna Be a VJ contest in 1998. He stayed with the network through 2002.
More than 20 years after becoming coworkers, Holmes is filled with countless positive memories working with Ananda.
“If you were working with her, you knew you’d be having fun, and you’d want to step your game up to match her effortless charisma,” he wrote via Instagram on Wednesday. “You couldn’t, but the trying made you better. … All my love to her family.”
With reporting by Erin Strecker
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