Richard Simmons' House Manager Recalls His Final Moments and Discovering Body, Denies Keeping Him 'Locked Up'

In a candid conversation with Teresa Reveles, who worked as Simmons' house manager for 35 years, she opened up to People about the fitness guru's final moments and what it was like to find him in the home she lived in with him on the day he died -- just one day after he turned 76.

Reveles, who notes is often and erroneously referred to as his housekeeper, shopped and cooked for Simmons and oversaw upkeep of the house and the yard. "August 9th is our 36th anniversary," she told the outlet in her first-ever interview.

Starting to get emotional, she admitted that she "can't stop crying" since Simmons' passing. "I still can’t believe what happened," she said.

When asked if she would rather speak later, she replied, "No, I want to celebrate Richard. He died happy."

While reclusive in recent years, a stark departure from the Richard Simmons fans had come to know at Ruffage and the Anatomy Asylum -- a combination health-food eatery and exercise studio -- and later as the fitness showman in his boisterous infomercials -- Reveles said he was content in those final days.

It was Reveles who found Simmons, in his bedroom.

"When I saw him, he looked peaceful," she said of finding him in his bedroom, his hands balled into fists. "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."

While she said he died of a heart attack, an official cause of death for the fitness enthusiast has not yet been released.

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.'"

Reveles said 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," she said. "He knew somehow."

Calling Simmons her "companion," Reveles said that in many ways, the pair lived together as a platonic couple, traveling together, eating every meal together and even exercising together.

Discussing his retreat from public life, Reveles said one of the reasons Simmons felt he had to "disappear" was because of his knees. As he got older, "he could not exercise and "he could not teach his class," she shared.

Simmons had one knee replacement surgery and needed another one, she said. Finally, in 2014, he told Reveles that he could not jump anymore.

"I think it's time for me to stop," she recalled him telling her.

Simmons admitted he knew people felt he had "disappeared" and found him to be "reclusive," in his final interview two days before his death. 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 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.

Touching on his retirement from the world of fitness, Simmons told People in that final interview, "My body told me it was time to retire," before weighing in on the commentary surrounding his whereabouts. "Yes, I know people miss me."

While tabloids often placed the blame on Reveles for keeping Simmons indoors over the years, she said that couldn't be further from the truth, telling the outlet, "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."

"He thought he looked too old," Revels added of Simmons' thoughts on his aging appearance. "He did not want anyone to see him. 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.'"

In the last days of Simmons life, Reveles was doing what he wanted. He was calling his fans and answering their emails, she said, and feeding the animals around his West Hollywood home.

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. Death, at that moment, wasn't in the cards.

Later that day, he fell, and took to bed, Revels recalled, with the morning of his birthday, Simmons telling 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.'"

"But in the morning it was too late," she said before revealing her plans 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," Reveles told the outlet.

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