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Richard Simmons' Housekeeper Says She Wants to 'Celebrate Richard' Amid His Passing; Shares 'He Died Happy'
Reveles, who worked for the late great fitness trainer and icon, Richard Simmons, for nearly 35 years, revealed a personal side of him whilst they lived together in his house up until his death.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of death.
Teresa Reveles gives a recollection of what Richard Simmons’ time was like before he passed away. Reveles, who worked for the late great fitness trainer and icon for nearly 35 years, revealed a personal side of Simmons whilst they lived together in his house, up until his death earlier this month.
A recollection of Richard Simmons' life outside the media
Reveles sat down with PEOPLE magazine for an exclusive story, where she reminisced about how it was almost a ritual for Simmons to feed the skunks that appeared on his door every night. He hand-fed them peanuts, and the furries would let him pet them on the head, which would often times confuse her. “‘Richard! They probably have rabies!’ I would tell him,” she recalls him saying.
Reveles began working for Simmons in 1986, via an agency. She conveyed to the latter that she could have been employed for a test period of two weeks, but Simmons prophetically told her, “Teresa, come in; you are never going to leave. We are going to be together until I die.” It turned out to be true since Reveles was the one who found him in his bedroom after he passed away. Recalling how she was able to deduce the cause of his death by looking at the clenched fists. “I had a heart attack a few years ago, and my hands did the same,” she told the outlet.
The duo has emerged to be much like a platonic couple: living together, doing chores, and running errands. She saw through him the times after he turned a recluse, contrary to the energetic fitness coach that the public had come to know. It was in his last decade that he made this change, due to his knee pain which resulted in two knee replacement surgeries. He informed her about his decision to quit public life, she remembers in the interview.
As he retreated from his media-bound work, the attention shifted to Reveles, who was then vilified through tabloids. “They said crazy things, that I kept him locked up in the house. But that just never was the truth,” she said.
Richard Simmons' final days
She then told PEOPLE what the final days of Simmons were like, where he did all that he wanted to, like calling fans and answering their emails. With plans to work on a documentary plus a Broadway show about his life, his health started failing a day before his passing away, which was coincidentally his birthday. Reveles insisted on going to the hospital, though he refused. The two agreed to schedule it for the next morning, but it was already too late.
“Richard took me in, all those years ago. And he became like my father. He loved me before I loved him,” she said, referencing to the beautiful friendship that ensued between her and the boss through 3 decades.
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