“Every little thing went the way he wanted it to. He wanted to die first, he went first,” Teresa Reveles, who worked for Simmons for 35 years, said in an interview.
Richard Simmons spent his last days on earth completely happy.
In a candid conversation with Teresa Reveles, who worked as a supervisor at Simmons’ home for 35 years, she opened up about People regarding the health guru’s final moments and what it was like to meet him in the house where she lived with him in day he died — simply at some point after turning 76.
Reveles, who notes that she is commonly and erroneously known as her housekeeper, shopped and cooked for Simmons and oversaw the upkeep of the house and yard. “August 9 is our 36th anniversary,” she advised the outlet in her first interview.
Starting to get emotional, she admitted that she “can’t stop crying” since Simmons’ death. “I still can’t imagine what happened,” she said.
Instagram
Jane Fonda Pays Tribute to Fellow ’80s Train Icon Richard Simmons
View story
When asked if she would prefer to talk later, she replied: “No, I want to have fun with Richard. He died completely happy.”
Though reclusive of late, a stark departure from the Richard Simmons followers they met at Ruffage and Anatomy Asylum — a mix of health food restaurant and exercise studio — and later as the fitness host in his raucous infomercials — Reveles said he was content in those final days.
It was Reveles who discovered Simmons, in his room.
“After I noticed him, he seemed peaceful,” she said of finding him in his room, his arms clenched into fists. “That’s how I know it was a heart attack. I had a heart attack a few years ago, and my arms did the same thing.”
Although she claimed he died of a heart attack, an official cause of the fitness fanatic’s death has yet to be released.
Reveles began working for Simmons in 1986 through a company.
“I checked in here and Richard said to me, ‘Where are your clothes? Where is your big suitcase?’ I said, ‘I’ll just give you the small suitcase because I’m only doing this for 2 weeks. If you don’t love me or don’t like my food, then I can’t work.’”
Getty
Richard Simmons’ brother tells followers not to ‘be sad’ after health guru’s passing: ‘Enjoy your life!’
View story
Reveles claimed that Simmons advised her: “’Teresa, come in, you’re never leaving. We’ll be together until I die.’”
“And you know what? His dream came true,” she said. “He knew somehow.”
Calling Simmons her “companion,” Reveles stated that in some ways, the couple lived together as a platonic couple, traveling together, eating every meal together, and even exercising together.
When discussing his retirement from public life, Reveles stated that one of the many reasons Simmons felt he needed to “disappear” was because of his knees. As he got older, “he couldn’t train and “he couldn’t train his class,” she shared.
Simmons had alternative knee surgery and wanted another, she said. Finally, in 2014, he told Reveles he could no longer jump.
Fox
Masked Singer double elimination is a surprise: R&B icon unmasked, panel baffled by Hall of Famer
View story
“I think it’s time to stop,” she remembers him telling her.
Simmons admitted that he knew people felt he had “disappeared” and considered him “reclusive,” in his opinion. definitive interview two days before his death. He insisted that he never disappeared, and that he spent his days calling and emailing followers. And, furthermore, he claimed that he did leave the house regularly, albeit in disguise. Both his brother, Lenny Simmons, and Reveles say this is true.
“We would go and drive,” Reveles said. Or they would walk around the neighborhood. “But usually we would be on the street and nobody would know him because he didn’t talk.” Reveles said he would put on a mask and a wig. And glasses.
Referring to his retirement from the healthcare world, Simmons advised People in that final interview, “My physique told me it was time to retire,” before weighing in on the buzz surrounding his whereabouts. “Of course, I know people miss me.”
While tabloids often blamed Reveles for keeping Simmons indoors over the years, she claimed that this couldn’t be further from the truth, telling the outlet, “They said crazy things, that I kept him locked up in the house. But that was never true. The media was following me everywhere. But I could never talk to them.”
“He thought he looked too old,” Revels added of Simmons’s thoughts on his aging appearance. “He didn’t need anyone to see it. Yet Richard looked the same. Okay, maybe a little older, like me, because now we have to age. A lot less hair. Yet he weighed the same, for the most part. He wasn’t as skinny.”
Getty
Hollywood Mourns the Death of Beloved KTLA Leisure Reporter Sam Rubin
View story
She says Simmons would repeatedly say, “’I don’t need people to see me. I don’t look so stunning anymore, Teresa.’”
In Simmons’ final days, Reveles was doing whatever he wanted. He was calling his followers and answering their emails, she said, and feeding the animals around his West Hollywood home.
He was planning to appear in an ABC documentary about his life and sit for an interview with Diane Sawyer. He was writing a Broadway musical based largely on his life. Dying, at that point, was not in the cards.
Later that day, he collapsed and went to bed, Revels recalled, and on the morning of his birthday, Simmons told Teresa, “I can’t lie down, my legs hurt so much.”
Reveles advised him, “Let’s go to the hospital. Maybe you broke your leg.” He advised her, “‘No, Teresa. Not on my birthday. Why don’t we wait and do it in the morning.’”
Getty
‘TMZ Presents – Prince: Deadly Secrets and Techniques’ Explores the Pop Star’s Intensely Personal Struggle (Exclusive Trailer)
View story
“However, in the morning it was already too late,” she said before revealing her plans to move to a home she owns in Mexico.
“Every little thing went the way he wanted. He wanted to die first, he went first. And you know what? I’m so happy because Richard was really, really happy. He died very happy,” Reveles told the outlet.
She discovered that Simmons purchased two burial plots adjacent to each other. One is for her. While she admitted that she resisted the idea at first, considering that she needs to be buried alongside her parents, she stated that when the time comes, she will take it.