Richard Simmons Claims ‘No One Is Holding Me In My House As a Hostage’
In a direct response to a story over the weekend that claimed Richard Simmons was being controlled and manipulated by his manager and his housekeeper, the fitness guru called in to the Today show Monday.
“No one is holding me in my house as a hostage,” Simmons said in the phone interview. “You know, I do what I want to do, as I’ve always done, so people should sort of just believe what I have to say because, like — I’m Richard Simmons!”
Simmons all but disappeared from public life two years ago. After a lifetime in the spotlight, he just stepped away. Many friends reported that he cut contact with them and spends his days alone at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
Richard Simmons (Photo: Splash News)
“I just sort of wanted to be a little bit of a loner for a little while,” Simmons said Monday. “You know, I had hurt my knee, and I had some problems with it, and then the other knee started giving me trouble because I’ve taught like, thousands and thousands of classes, and you know — right now, I just want to sort of take care of me.”
In a phone interview with Entertainment Tonight on Sunday, he said something along the same lines: “I am not kidnapped. I am just in my house right now.”
In a story that ran in the New York Daily News, friends of Simmons said that he had stopped responding to calls and emails, and was completely unavailable, which was unlike him.
“It’s not something that I want to seek publicity about, but we are very concerned,” a friend told the Daily News on the condition of anonymity. “Teresa [Simmons’s housekeeper] did turn me away several times. He has missed funerals of close friends. He was the most reliable and caring person on the planet, and then to suddenly vanish? I have come to believe that something else is happening. I don’t think Richard is in there of his own volition.”
Simmons, 67, says that he is in good health and insists he will be back.
“For all the people that were worrying about me, I want to tell them that I love them with my whole heart and soul, and … not to worry — Richard’s fine,” he said. “You haven’t seen the last of me. I’ll come back, and I’ll come back strong.”
