In the ’90s and 2000s, the former model was one of the most recognized faces on TV as a veejay — someone who introduced and played popular music videos. She was also an on-air radio personality and was the host BET‘s Teen Summit, a live TV program that discussed issues Black teens often endure with live performances from then-popular R&B and hip-hop artists. During a recent interview with the Atlanta Black Star, the 53-year-old opened up about her career in front of the camera. Despite all of her great memories, there’s one memory she cringes at and wishes never happened.

When the conscious lyricist Q-Tip embarked on his solo journey as a music artist, he went on a press tour to debut a new music video for his album. One of his stops included MTV’s weekday series Hot Zone, a live TV program that introduced music videos, which Lewis hosted. During the show, they aired the video and after watching it for the first time, the veejay-turned-HGTV star questioned why the A Tribe Called Quest rapper portrayed Black women in a degrading way.

“I didn’t mean it as disrespect,” she told the Atlanta Black Starr. “I meant it as the reality. I felt it like, ‘what happened, you a Tribe Called Quest? Why are they naked?’ You know, that’s how I felt. And the people who hired me knew how I felt. They knew my mouth. That’s why they hired me.”

She continued, “It was a moment where this person who was a friend of mine was launching their solo career. I didn’t get the bigger picture. … And that’s a moment I really regret on TV. I wish I had been more gentle and more, more understanding ending, and I wish I had leaned into the celebration more than the criticism.”

The late Prince even called up Lewis, telling her she “rotisseried that brother.” She added, “I was like ‘No, I didn’t…did I?’ Cause in the moment it didn’t feel like it except I saw Tip’s face and I looked over and saw his manager’s face and I was ‘I done did something very wrong.'”

 

Lewis says she didn’t realize the magnitude of her role as a host on a major TV network’s platform at the time. She also shared how this moment changed her interview style moving forward because she never wanted a guest to feel like they were being attached versus supported in a safe place. “It certainly made me go forward with a little edit button in my mouth and other people benefitted from that,” Lewis said while giggling. “But I couldn’t undo that moment and we were live all the time.”

Since then, she went on to host her self-titled talk show, The Ananda Lewis Show, which lasted one season in 2001. Afterward, she was a correspondent from The Insider before ending her media career to take care of her ill grandmother. During this time, she went to school to get a degree in carpentry and filmed a show with HGTV in 2018 called Change Your Space and TLC for its home improvement series While You Were Out in 2019. She has also been the host of TLC’s reality TV docu-series Unexpected since 2019.