CNN anchors break down on air sharing last message from late MTV VJ Ananda Lewis

Sara Sidner and Stephanie Elam both held back tears as they paid tribute to their late colleague and friend.

Sara Sidner and Stephanie Elam on CNN talking about Ananda Lewis.Credit: CNN

CNN’s Sara Sidner and Stephanie Elam are mourning the death of their friend Ananda Lewis.

The two journalists paid tribute to the late MTV VJ, who died Wednesday following a prolonged battle with breast cancer, during a CNN segment on Thursday.

“My beautiful friend, mother, sister, and daughter has died after years of living with breast cancer,” Sidner said before introducing a clip of an October 2024 conversation that she had with Lewis about them both receiving stage III breast cancer diagnoses.

“I took the traditional route of a double mastectomy, chemo, and radiation. Ananda decided against the double mastectomy and decided to take a different treatment route,” Sidner explained.

The network then broadcast a snippet of their conversation, wherein Lewis said, “I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way.”

“I drove to be with her, and held her hand, and I told her how much I love her,” Elam said. “Two-thirds of my life, she has been my ride or die.”

Elam went on to explain that she planned to visit Lewis again after her broadcast on Wednesday, but the MTV personality’s older sister informed her that her friend had died. “I’m so glad I was able to go the night before,” she said.

Elam also shared portions of one of Lewis’ final text messages to her.

“She said that things had taken a different turn than she would have liked. This is part of the text she sent me,” she began. “She’s like, ‘You know my feelings on this: we all go. These bodies are on loan and must be returned. We come in love and choose to leave it with love as well.’ And then she’d go on to say in another part of it: ‘I love you my wonderful lifelong bestie of besties.’”

Ananda Lewis broadcasting for MTV in 1999.Everett

The journalist emphasized that Lewis had come to terms with her choice. “She was at peace with this decision,” Elam said. “She was calm about it. She wanted to go after breast cancer the way she did it, and I love my girl, but she was hard-headed. She wanted to do it her own way, despite the fact that so many of us close to her wanted us to try the way you did it, right? But this is what she wanted to do, and she was totally at peace with it.”

Sidner, who was forcing back tears throughout the segment, praised Lewis’ generosity. “She was always trying to help people through things herself, whether it would be something funny like your skincare, your skin routine, or, you know, fixing up your house,” she recalled. “She was amazing.”

Elam then vulnerably reflected on the confusion and pain of her grieving process. “She was my handywoman. I mean, she fixed everything for me,” she said while visibly emotional. “I look around, I’m like, ‘How am I gonna do these things?’ There are so many things I don’t understand. Do you unpin someone from your phone? There are so many parts of this that no one talks to you about when you lose someone this close to you. And I think that’s part of this journey as well.”

Elam also said that Lewis’ death is a testament to the importance of proactively seeking medical testing and making the most of your circumstances.

“I’m so proud of her for being open and honest and courageous to have this conversation, because if she has encouraged anyone to go out there and to get their mammograms, to test, get all the testing done—” she said. “I know it’s scary and uncomfortable, but please do it. Save a life. Be here. Thrive. That’s what she wanted people to know, and that’s what I want people to know too.”