CNN reporter holds back tears recalling final moments before death of MTV VJ Ananda Lewis

USA Today

13-06-2025

CNN reporter holds back tears recalling final moments before death of MTV VJ Ananda Lewis
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A pair of CNN stars are remembering MTV video jockey Ananda Lewis, who died earlier this week from breast cancer.
Holding back tears, CNN anchor Sara Sidner told viewers this is "a story I didn't want to have to tell you" before she was later joined by their mutual friend and network correspondent Stephanie Elam, who visited the former "Teen Summit" star the day before she died on June 11.
Elam said she drove from an overnight shift, after covering the Los Angeles protests, to hold the hand of her "ride or die" Lewis. The next day, Elam said she planned to return to visit Lewis again.
CNN anchor Sara Sidner tearfully reveals breast cancer diagnosis: 'Hard to say out loud'
"After I got off the air, I looked down and had a message from her beautiful big sister who has been such a strong champion for her and has kept me abreast of everything and messaged me and told me that she passed away right before I finished that last hit," Elam said. "And, so it was too late.
"One thing that I want everyone to know is that she was at peace with this decision," Elam said of Lewis. "She had come to grips with it."
The Los Angeles-based reporter for CNN said her friend's condition changed quicker than expected, explaining that "we thought we had weeks, and it turned out that it turned into days and then it was actually just a matter of hours."
Elam said she and Lewis met before their freshman year at Howard University, a premier historically Black university in Washington, D.C.
Lewis was one of the first big video jockeys on MTV. She was a groundbreaking face on the network after she first started her career by hosting "Teen Summit" on BET after graduating from Howard. In 1997, she joined MTV where she hosted "Total Request Live" and "Hot Zone."
After leaving MTV in 2001, she hosted her own short-lived syndicated talk show, "The Ananda Lewis Show."
Sara Sidner revealed her own stage 3 cancer diagnosis live on CNN
Last year, Sidner revealed that she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, telling viewers on-air on CNN she was in her second month of chemotherapy treatments and would receive radiation and a double mastectomy.
"I have never been sick a day of my life," Sidner told viewers. "I don't smoke. I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet here I am, with stage 3 breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud."
In October, Sidner and Lewis sat down with Elam to talk about their respective cancer journeys where the latter took a more holistic route. During the talk, Lewis discussed her outlook on the diagnosis, which she decided to treat more naturally.
"The cancer diagnosis caused me to change things in my life I never would have changed otherwise, that I needed to change but would not change," she said on CNN. "And those changes have allowed me access to more of my joy, more of the time."