Richard Simmons' Final Social Media Post Released

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Employees of the late fitness guru Richard Simmons have shared his final social media post, one week after Simmons' death.

Simmons was found dead July 13 in his Hollywood Hills home, one day after celebrating his 76th birthday. His official cause of death has not been released by the Los Angeles Office of Medical Examiner, but TMZ has cited law enforcement sources in reporting that Simmons had fallen in his bathroom the night of his birthday but refused to go to a hospital.

His housekeeper found him dead the next morning.

On Saturday, his staff shared the following post on his official account on X (formerly Twitter): "Hello everyone. Richard worked very hard on his posts for you. He had many ideas and would work ahead -- going back to each one making changes until he had it just like he wanted before posting. As you know, on the weekends, he would just share a photo with a caption. He always chose his photos and wrote his captions for the upcoming weekend by Friday. So we have the post Richard planned to share with you last Sunday. We thought you'd want to see it.

"Here is the post Richard had planned for you for Sunday July 14, 2024:"

The post then concludes with the following message, accompanied by a photo of a gray-haired Simmons wearing a NASA flight suit:

"Let me fly you to the moon so we can gaze among the stars. Love, Richard."

After spending years as a ubiquitous figure on television, Simmons had retreated from public appearances in recent years amid rampant speculation about his health. He was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2017 for what was reported to be a gastrointestinal problem.

But he told People shortly before his death he felt good as he prepared for his birthday.

"I feel good! I am grateful that I'm here, that I am alive for another day. I'll spend my birthday doing what I do every day, which is to help people," he said.

Simmons revealed in March that he was diagnosed with and treated for skin cancer "so many years ago."