14 DAY TRIAL // Exercise guru Richard Simmons hasn’t been seen in public since January this year, and reports online claim that he’s in a really bad shape, battling depression and dealing with a health problem that threatens to leave him unable to work out.
According to his publicist, Simmons is ok: he’s seen better days because he has a knee injury that “sidelined” him, but he’s definitely not as bad as the abovementioned report tried to make it sound.
That’s all a lie, friends of the star reveal for TMZ, worried that this statement is nothing but a cover-up for a very serious problem.
Simmons is a recluse, struggling with severe depression: rumors & facts
That’s the unofficial report into the star’s current state: sources close to him have been telling the media that he’s cut them out of his life since earlier this year, that he’s no longer answering phone calls and has even instructed his staff to not let anyone inside his house.
Apparently, Simmons has a really bad knee and he’s been told he needs to have it replaced, but he’s scared of going under the knife, especially since he’s been warned to expect he might not be able to exercise anymore.
He’s been struggling with depression for months, with a few friends even saying that they fear the worst about him. They wouldn’t say what that might be.
On the other hand, we have Simmons’ representatives insisting that he’s ok. They admit he has some health issues but maintain that they’re nothing serious, so he should be back up and running in almost no time.
As for all that talk about depression: it’s unfounded, his publicist insists. Simmons is “sad” because he’s been kept from doing what he loves the most for so many months, but he’s not clinically depressed. Neither is a he a recluse or a shut-in, so all those “friends” claiming otherwise are lying.
The publicist is lying: this is a cover-up
And here’s where conspiracy theories start: the same friends are now talking to TMZ again, insisting that this statement that Simmons is OK is nothing more than a cover-up of what could only be described a “dire” situation.
That is to say, these friends fear the worst – and they offer all the clues that led them to this conclusion. For starters, no one has had contact with him since March 10, when he suddenly and completely stopped talking phone calls or entertaining house visits.
Since then, he also stopped calling friends: he didn’t even call one of his best friends to offer his condolences on his mother’s passing. Simmons would have attended Joan Rivers’ funeral because they were very close friends: he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Perhaps even more telling is the fact that Simmons stopped going to his gym studio, which he founded decades ago and where he still teaches classes. Had the reason for this been a knee injury, he would have said so, but right now, no one knows why he stopped coming.
Last but not least, if Simmons were suffering just from a bad knee and a case of the sads, in Internet-speak, he would have called his friends to let them know it. “If Richard is really ok and is aware people are extremely concerned about him, he'd pick up the phone and tell them to relax. But he hasn't, and we're worried sick,” a friend tells TMZ.
