Richard Simmons’ longtime housekeeper is set to speak publicly about the events surrounding his death in a forthcoming tell-all account.
Simmons died on July 13, 2024. He was widely known as a fitness coach and television personality who built a career around encouraging people to pursue healthier lives.
He hosted The Richard Simmons Show and became a familiar face through weight-loss workshops and upbeat fitness programs that emphasized support and positivity.
In later years, Simmons drew renewed attention after reports circulated claiming he was being kept from friends and the outside world by his live-in housekeeper. Police ultimately investigated those claims following a welfare check and said they were unfounded.
“There was something about his housekeeper holding him hostage and not allowing people to see him and preventing him from making phone calls and it was all garbage and that’s why we went out to see him. None of it is true,” Detective Kevin Becker told PEOPLE in a statement.
Now, Diane Sawyer is preparing to air an interview with Simmons’ housekeeper, Teresa Reveles, in an ABC special titled The Mystery of Richard Simmons: A Diane Sawyer Special.
The program is due to broadcast on May 12 and is expected to revisit Simmons’ final days and the circumstances surrounding his last moments.
The special is being billed as the first time Reveles has addressed his death publicly, while also exploring Simmons’ retreat from public life after 2014 through to his death in 2024.
A trailer for the episode offers a brief glimpse of what viewers will hear.
In the preview, a narrator asks: “And what does Richard’s live-in housekeeper – the last person to see him alive – now say happened behind closed doors?”
Reveles is then heard saying: “When I came here, then I saw him on the floor.”
Alongside Reveles, the special is also expected to feature interviews with Simmons’ brother Lenny Simmons and his wife, Cathy Simmons.
It will additionally include conversations with his manager Michael Catalano and friend Rosie O’Donnell.
Reveles first crossed paths with Simmons in 1986 after being introduced through an agency.
She told PEOPLE: “I showed up in here and Richard says to me, ‘Where are your clothes? Where is your big suitcase?’ 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 later told her that she would never leave, adding that they would stay together until he died.
“And you know what? His dream came true. He knew somehow,” she said.