Richard Simmons’ housekeeper and longtime companion has a theory as to how the fitness guru died.
Teresa Reveles, who never granted an interview to the press during Simmons’ lifetime, opened up about their relationship and his final days to People, telling the magazine in a story published Monday that she discovered his body on the floor of his bedroom the morning after his 76th birthday.
Though he looked “peaceful,” Simmons’ hands were balled into fists, she said. “That’s why I know it was a heart attack. I had a heart attack a few years ago, and my hands did the same.”
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An autopsy was completed shortly after Simmons’ July 13 death. His official cause of death had not been released as of Monday afternoon.
Reveles said that the Sweatin’ To The Oldies host had suffered a fall at his home two days before his death. The morning of his birthday, she remembered, he told her he couldn’t leave his bed and go downstairs—his legs hurt too much.
“‘Let’s go to the hospital,’” Reveles recalled telling him. “‘Maybe you broke your leg.’”
Simmons waved her off, she said, telling her, “‘Not on my birthday.’” He said they’d go the next morning.
“But in the morning it was too late,” Reveles said.
The 73-year-old Reveles, who shopped for Simmons, oversaw upkeep of his property and house, and cooked for him, according to People. She went to work for him in 1986, having been connected through an agency.
“I showed up in here and Richard says to me, ‘Where are your clothes? Where is your big suitcase?’” she said. “I said, ‘I just bring the little suitcase because I only try this for two weeks. If you don't like me or you don’t like my cooking, then I can’t work.’”
Reveles said Simmons told her: “Teresa, come in, you are never going to leave. We are going to be together until I die.’”
The pair worked, traveled, and lived together for the next 36 years. In the middle of her sitdown with People, the magazine reported, Reveles began to weep. “I can’t stop crying,” she explained. “I still can’t believe what happened.”
Asked if she wanted to take a break, though, she demurred. “No, I want to celebrate Richard. He died happy.”
