'My beautiful friend': CNN host fights tears as she shares tragic news
CNN anchor Sara Sidner and correspondent Stephanie Elam both fought back tears while speaking on the death of their friend, former MTV video jockey Ananda Lewis, who died of breast cancer this week.
“This is a story I didn't want to have to tell you,” Sidner said, trying to eke out the words as she fought back tears. “But Ananda Lewis, the former MTV VJ and host of teen summit turned content creator, and my beautiful friend, mother, sister, and daughter, has died after years of living with breast cancer.”
Sidner and Lewis were both diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time. Sidner went the traditional route of double mastectomy and chemo/radiation. But Lewis wanted to take a different route.
“Ananda completely overhauled her diet, improved her sleep, pursued aggressive homeopathic therapies along with traditional medicine and radiation,” Sidner said. “She improved for a long time, she says, removing the toxins, physical and emotional, from her body has been beneficial.”
Sidner added, “But last year, she found out her cancer had metastasized into stage four, which means the cancer spread to other areas.”
The anchor then tossed to a clip of Lewis speaking about her cancer. “My lymph system really flared up, and so all through my abdomen, all those limbs were very flared up, my collarbone, and it was the first time I ever had a conversation with death, because I felt like, this is this is how it ends,” Lewis said in the clip.
“That was October 2024,” Sidner recalled as she continued to honor her friend and prevent herself from crying, “She got to live eight more months.”
Sidner then tossed it over to Elam, who also held back tears during the segment.
The correspondent recalled the last time she saw her friend. “So I was about to go to bed when I got the call.” Elam said.
“I hadn't gone up to see her because I didn't want to get her sick, and I got the call, and I realized even though I had to get up in a few hours, I needed to get there.”
Elam drove to be with her friend one last time, “and held her hand, and I told her how much I love her. For two-thirds of my life, she has been my ride or die.”
The correspondent found out her friend had passed away a few short hours after she saw her. “After I got off the air, I looked down and I 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.
"And so it was too late [to see her again].”
Elam added, “One thing that I want everyone to know is that she was at peace with this decision.”
Sidner the segment by saying, “To Stephanie Elam, I love you. To the Ananda Lewis family, bless you.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
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