Richard Simmons' Housekeeper of 35 Years Breaks Her Silence: 'He Died Happy' (Exclusive) (2024)

The last days of Richard Simmons’ life were joyful, his long-time house manager says. They included feeding neighborhood skunks.

Simmons was reclusive in recent years; a stark departure from the Richard Simmons his fans had come to know and adore.

Simmons grew up in New Orleans, where he struggled with weight issues throughout childhood (he weighed 268 lbs. when he graduated high school in 1966). The fitness showman first found fame in Los Angeles, where he opened Ruffa*ge and the Anatomy Asylum — a combination health-food eatery and exercise studio in 1974.

It was the beginning of a fitness empire that included nine books (two bestsellers), his Deal-A-Meal and FoodMover diet plans, infomercials and mega-hit workout videos (including 'Sweatin’ to the Oldies,' which sold over 22 million copies). He appeared regularly onGeneral Hospital, hosted his own talk show in the ’80s and became a favorite guest for the likes ofDavid LettermanandRosie O’Donnell.

With his signature crown of curly hair, rhinestone-covered tank tops, dolphin shorts and tube socks, Simmons was a frenetic, high-kicking, arm-waving icon — and a sparkling beacon of hope for his millions of fans.

Over the years, Reveles has often — and erroneously — been referred to as his housekeeper. “His housekeeper is someone else, she’s worked here for 40 years.” Reveles, 73, shopped for Simmons, oversaw upkeep of the house and the yard, and cooked for him. “August 9^th is our 36^th anniversary,” she says, in her first-ever interview.

In the midst of her interview with PEOPLE, she starts to sob. “I can’t stop crying. I still can’t believe what happened.” Asked if she would rather speak later, she replies, “No, I want to celebrate Richard. He died happy.”

It was Reveles who found Simmons, in his bedroom. “When I saw him, he looked peaceful.” But his hands were balled into fists, she says. “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.”

Reveles came to work for Simmons in 1986 through an agency. “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.’” Simmons told her: “Teresa, come in, you are never going to leave. We are going to be together until I die.”

“And you know what? His dream came true. He knew somehow.”

She refers to herself as Simmons’ “companion.” And, to hear her tell it, they were in many ways a platonic couple. They lived together, traveled together (he took her to Venice many times), ate every meal together. (He liked her lemon chicken before he was vegetarian, Mexican stew and string beans after). They exercised. He left notes for her all over the house and under her pillow. They joked. But not always together.

“If I was in the kitchen and then I come into the living room, he would hide and jump out, being so loud that he would scare me to death. I’d start screaming, ‘Richard, you almost killed me!’" He’d just laugh and say, ‘Teresa, almost doesn't count.’”

While they spent almost 40 years together, it was over the last 10 years their lives merged in many ways. "Teresa was extremely loyal and trustworthy," Simmons' brother Lenny tells PEOPLE exclusively. "She loved my brother, and he loved her. We are blessed to have Teresa in our lives."

It was in that final decade of Simmons' life that he became such a mystery to his fans. He disappeared, many people say. His reclusion became the basis for podcasts, tabloid reports, social media chatter.

Reveles remembers when Simmons left public life, in 2014. “Before that, he never was home. He only came sometimes for a weekend and then he had to leave Tuesday and then goes for 10 days and then would come back to the house for clothes or to see the dogs for two days, back and forth.”

Reveles said he missed his six Dalmatians, all named for characters from Gone With the Wind, who had died over the years.

In Simmons’ final interview, two days before his death, he spoke of the 35 years he spent on the road teaching exercise classes, for more than 200 days a year. “My body told me it was time to retire,” he told PEOPLE exclusively. He was very aware his fans had thoughts. “Yes, I know people miss me.”

Simmons said he knew people felt he had “disappeared” and found him to be “reclusive.” He insisted he never disappeared, and that he spent his days calling and emailing fans. And, besides, he said, he actually did leave the house all the time. Albeit in disguise. Both his brother, Lenny Simmons, and Reveles say this is true.

“We’d go and drive,” Reveles said. Or they’d walk the neighborhood. “But sometimes we were in the street and nobody knew him because he would not talk.” Reveles said he would wear a mask and a wig. And glasses.

Reveles says one reason Simmons left public life was because of his knees. “He could not exercise,” she says. “He could not teach his class. ‘Teresa, my knees hurt.’” Simmons had one knee replacement surgery and needed another one, she said. Finally, in 2014, he told Reveles that he could not jump anymore and “I think it's time for me to stop."

“When he told me that I thought, ‘He's kidding. He can't do that.’ But he said, ‘I want to be Richard. If I'm not going to be Richard...' —you know, with famous people they say, ‘The day I can't be myself, then I have to stop working.’ And that’s why he did it.”

He also did not like the way he looked.

"He thought he looked too old," she says. "He did not want anyone to see him.” She laughs at the memory, a moment of relatable insecurity. “But Richard looked the same. Okay, maybe a little older, like me, because we have to age.A little less hair. But he weighed the same, mostly. He was not as skinny.”

She says Simmons would say, over and over again: “I don't want people to see me. I don't look that beautiful anymore, Teresa.”

As Simmons dropped out of public life, his fitness studio shuttered in 2016, focus began to shift to her. She knows what was said about her. “They said crazy things, that I kept him locked up in the house. But that just never was the truth. The media was following me everywhere. But I would never talk to them.”

Tabloid photographers would shout at her, try to antagonize her into a response. “They would call me a f---ing bitch. You know, they put a [tracking device] under my car so they can follow me.”

She kept seeing the same cars following her. She went to a mechanic and the police in 2019. There were actually two tracking devices under her car. Reveles says that, based on the level of technology, the person who put the devices deep inside her engine was “somebody with a lot of money."

In the last days of Simmons life, she says, he was doing what he wanted. He was calling his fans and answering their emails. He was planning to take part in an ABC documentary about his life and sit down for an interview with Diane Sawyer. He was writing a Broadway musical based on his life. And, two days before he died, he gave his first interview in a decade to PEOPLE.

Later that day, he fell, and took to bed. The morning of his birthday, he said, "Teresa, I can't go down, my legs hurt a lot."

Reveles told him, “Let’s go to the hospital. Maybe you broke your leg." He told her, "No, Teresa. Not on my birthday. Why we don't wait and we do it in the morning." She pauses. “But in the morning it was too late.”

Today Reveles is still in Simmons’ home; it’s been her home too. Her plan is to move to a home she owns in Mexico next. “Everything happened the way he wanted. He wanted to die first, he went first. And you know what? I'm very happy because Richard was really, very happy. He died very happy.”

She found out that Simmons bought two burial plots next to each other. One is for her. She at first resisted the notion, thinking she should be buried with her parents, but now will go to be with him.

“Richard took me in, all those years ago. And he became like my father. He loved me before I loved him. He gave me beautiful jewelry. Every time he gave me something, in the early years, I was thinking, ‘He doesn't know me! Why did he do this? Why did he do that?"

When Simmons' mother died, he returned home from New Orleans, Reveles remembers. "Theresa,” he said, “This ring is the first ring that I bought my mother when I got my first check. And I want you to have that."

Just days before Simmons died, he surprised Reveles with an early anniversary present: a diamond pin.

"Why?" Reveles asked Simmons. "Our anniversary is not for a few weeks. It’s almost here."

“Because I want to do it now. You know, Teresa, almost doesn’t count.”