Richard Simmons thanks fans for their concern and says he was hospitalized for dehydration. The fitness guru reportedly had been hospitalized due to "bizarre" behavior months after allegations surfaced that he was being held against his will. But Simmons says he merely needed fluids.
TMZ reported that “Simmons was acting in an unusually strange manner just before midnight (Friday) when someone at his Hollywood Hills home became sufficiently alarmed to call 911.
In March, Simmons sought to fend off rumors he was being held against his will with a phone interview with “Entertainment Tonight.”
The odd interview followed a New York Daily News report that Simmons hadn’t been seen publicly in two years, with one source claiming Simmons’ housekeeper is holding him hostage.
At the time Simmons spokesoman Tom Estey told USA Today, “Richard Simmons has been in the public eye for 40 years, and he’s opted out. It’s his right to do it. That’s the God’s honest truth. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
Estey added, “I don’t want the readers of USA Today to think this man is a Howard Hughes recluse in his own home. He’s just not.”
From Simmons’ comments to ET:
“I love all the people who worry about me, but it was time for me to take some time to be by myself. For the last 40 years, I have been traveling, teaching classes, and I had a knee injury, so I had a knee replacement, which was very difficult for me. … I have really just been taking it easy, staying at home, working out in my gym and doing the things I haven’t done in a very long time.”
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