‘The Today Show’ gets first Richard Simmons interview in years (video)

One of the more interesting stories that we’ve seen play out almost under the radar over the past few weeks has been the mystery revolving around Richard Simmons. The legendary fitness guru has not been seen publicly in years, and of course with that in mind there have been a wide array of different rumors that have come out about his physical and mental well-being.

Following a report from the New York Daily News suggesting that Simmons was actually being held hostage in some way, the fitness guru did his part to finally speak out. In a phone chat with Savannah Guthrie on “The Today Show” Monday (watch below) Simmons insisted that he is okay, and simply enjoying some private time away from the spotlight while he also recovers from some nagging knee problems.

We’re never going to say that we were an avid watcher of anything Simmons did in regards to Simmons, but one of the reasons we’d love to have him back in the spotlight were his contributions to late-night comedy. His interviews with David Letterman were one of our favorite things out there, and while Dave may no longer be on the air, it would be fun to see if anyone else out there decides to try to take up that torch and use him for some other bits of funny entertainment.

In the end, Simmons does insist that his time away from the spotlight is not permanent, and that we’re eventually going to end up seeing him again. We suppose that for the time being, we’ll just have to look forward to that.

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