Inside Richard Simmons and Teresa Reveles’ Unconventional 30-Year Relationship
Real talk: this housekeeper saga is still wild. A year after fitness icon Richard Simmons passed away at age seventy-six, his longtime housekeeper Teresa Reveles is finally clearing the air on those persistent relationship whispers. In an NBC News interview published July 11, Reveles, now seventy-three, revealed how her bond with Simmons evolved from employer-employee to something far deeper over three decades in his Beverly Hills home.
Reveles began working for Simmons in the late 1980s. What started as a typical household arrangement quickly morphed into an inseparable pairing. “He never loved anybody like me,” she told NBC News reporter Liz Kreutz. That love, she insisted, was never sexual but deeply affectionate. “He wasn’t my lover – not sexually – but he kissed me all the time,” she added, describing how Simmons would greet her with pecks on the cheek or forehead.
Speculation about her role in Simmons’ life peaked nearly ten years ago, when some friends floated kidnapping rumors. Back then, the instructor himself set the record straight with Entertainment Tonight, per CBS: “I am not kidnapped. I am just in my house right now. It was time for me to take some time to be by myself.” Despite those denials, gossip lingered – until now. Reveles laughs off any notion of holding him hostage. “No, I think he kidnapped me,” she quipped, noting that they were both perfectly content with their arrangement.
What made their connection so unique? Reveles described Simmons as “my everything,” then qualified, “Really like a brother, or he was like my father, my friend, my boyfriend.” She declined to define how Simmons viewed potential partners beyond their duo, saying, “That answer is for Richard, not for me.” Even as insiders raised eyebrows, Reveles says she never wavered. “It’s their problem, you know? We were very happy. And the last ten years was the most happy years.”
Throughout their 36 years together, she never saw Simmons unhappy, angry, or upset. His buoyant spirit, which powered the famous Sweatin to the Oldies classes, stayed intact until the end. Just one day after celebrating his seventy-sixth birthday, Simmons suffered a fatal fall in his home. Reveles remains his closest confidante and the person who truly understood his daily world.
With these fresh details, fans get a clearer picture of the man behind the high-energy workouts and the private life he guarded so carefully. Reveles’ candid reflections peel back the curtain on a friendship that defied easy labels and became the heart of Simmons’ later years. And that is the scoop. Take it or leave it.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and NBC News, Entertainment Tonight, CBS, E! Online
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
