'He Was Ready to Make a Comeback'

ONE YEAR AFTER HIS DEATH, RICHARD SIMMONS' LOVED ONES SPEAK OUT ABOUT THE BELOVED FITNESS SUPERSTAR'S FINAL MONTHS

- By JOHNNY DODD

In the early-morning hours of July 8, 2024, Patrick Leonard received an email from Richard Simmons. For the previous month the famed songwriter had been busy putting music to the biographical lyrics that Simmons—who’d spent the past 10 years living in seclusion from his flamboyant public persona—would send him, hoping they would one day become a hit Broadway musical, marking his grand return to show business. “It was a poem about dealing with loss,” says Leonard, trying not to choke up while reading Simmons’s prophetic words. “He wrote: ‘It takes a toll on your heart. Some shed many tears, others stare at the sky. It’s so hard to say goodbye. Here’s what I know: When it’s time for us to go, beautiful angels will greet us with a smile and hello.’”

Leonard, who’s worked with everyone from Madonna and Rod Stewart to Leonard Cohen, never got a chance to sit down at his piano and compose a melody to accompany Simmons’s last installment of lyrics. Five days later the body of the 76-year-old former exercise superstar was found in the bedroom of his Los Angeles home. Simmons’s unexpected death from heart disease and complications from a fall marked a sudden, unsettling end to an iconic career that spawned bestselling books, infomercials and workout videos that sold more than 22 million copies. Reports later emerged that he had taken a tumble before he died but waved off entreaties from his live-in house manager to get medical attention. “It’s been a very long year,” says Simmons’s brother Lenny. “Someone once told me that we die twice—once when we die and another when people stop mentioning our name.” Luckily, he adds, “people are still talking about Richard.”