*Police officers did a welfare check on Richard Simmons after questions about his whereabouts and well-being made headlines this week following a “Nightline” report about the podcast “Finding Richard Simmons.”
A police source tells Us Weekly, “He is perfectly fine. Officers spoke with Richard and determined he is not in harm’s way.”
Speculation about the former TV personality (real name Milton Teagle Simmons) has been rampant since he disappeared from the public eye in 2014. In episode 3 of the podcast, host and creator Dan Taberski repeated the theory that Simmons, 68, is being held hostage by his housekeeper Teresa Reveles.
In the podcast, Oliveira — a longtime friend — recalled visiting a “trembling” Simmons in May 2014, three months after he suddenly stopped teaching at his workout studio, Slimmons, and being turned away by Reveles: “She started screaming like a witch, ‘No no no no, get out, get out! I don’t want him here!’ Richard looked at me and said, ‘You got to go.’ I said, ‘Really? Is she controlling your life now?’ and he said yes. And that I have to leave.” Oliveira has previously accused the housekeeper of using “black magic” to control her boss.
But Simmons’ rep, Tom Estey, denies that Reveles is keeping him hostage. “Teresa has been working with him for 27 years,” Estey tells Us. “So, holding him hostage is the biggest, I mean … Teresa is the housekeeper, she’s the caretaker, she is extraordinary, she is amazing, she takes impeccable care of Richard and she has for as long as I have been working with Richard, so that is a complete load of crap.”
“Richard made a choice to live a more private life,” his rep continues. “If he decides to come back, he’ll come back … People claim that it happened overnight. It really didn’t. We were turning down stuff for years and just kind of quieting down, and when he decides that he wants to come back, that’s when he’ll come back, and when that will be, I have no idea or if he will at all. There really isn’t anything to report.”
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