Names and faces
■ Commentator Candace Owens has left the Daily Wire, the website founded by conservative Ben Shapiro. In a statement posted to social media Friday morning, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing said the company and the pundit “have ended their relationship.” “The rumors are true — I am finally free,” Owens said in her own post. The details of Owens’ exit weren’t immediately clear. The Daily Wire didn’t respond to a request for further comment. Owens couldn’t be reached for an immediate comment. Owens, 34, first rose to prominence on the right for her commentary skeptical of women who had been harassed during the 2014 “GamerGate” controversy. A defender of Donald Trump, she launched a campaign in 2018 known as “Blexit” to try to encourage Black voters to leave the Democratic Party. In 2020, she joined the Daily Wire — a Nashville, Tenn.-based conservative entertainment conglomerate — and immediately became one of its leading pundits. Her profile grew when rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, praised the way she “thinks,” both turning out to a 2022 fashion show wearing matching “White Lives Matter” shirts.
■ Self-proclaimed “Weight Saint” Richard Simmons offered his fans an update about his health, days after sharing a cryptic Facebook post contemplating his mortality. The fitness guru, 75, revealed Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer and received treatment to remove the cancerous cells. Simmons detailed finding “a strange looking bump under my right eye” in a pair of Facebook posts. Simmons said he set up an appointment with his dermatologist, who tested the lump and determined it was basal cell carcinoma. “I told him to stop calling me dirty names,” Simmons recalled the interaction. “He laughed.” After receiving his diagnosis, Simmons said he underwent multiple sessions in the same day to remove all the cancerous cells. The Slimmons studio founder, known for his high-energy workout videos, shared his cancer revelation after telling his devoted fans “I am … dying” in a Facebook post shared earlier this week. “Hug those people and children who you really care for. A big hug really goes a long way,” he said, before recommending the Tim McGraw song “Live Like You Were Dying.” In the comments, concerned fans voiced love for Simmons and praised him for his lively spirit. After his initial eerie post made the internet rounds, Simmons shared another statement Tuesday. “It was a message about saying how we should embrace every day that we have,” he said. “Sorry for this confusion.”