Richard Simmons shoots down "witch craft" story

Image 1 of 2

▼

Richard Simmons arrives at the Project Angel Food's 2013 Angel Awards on Saturday, August 10, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Fitness fanatic Richard Simmons, 67, is at home, alive and well, after not being seen in public in more than two years.

That's what he told Entertainment Tonight in a telephone interview Sunday in an effort to dispel rumors that he is being held against his will with witch craft.

The story came to light over the weekend in the NY Daily News which reported that close friend Mauro Oliveira visited Simmons at his Hollywood Hills home in 2014 and found him gaunt and disheveled.

“I just want to be by myself, and I want to be in the house, and we’re never going to see each other again," Simmons reportedly told Oliveira.

When his longtime friend and massage therapist offered to give him a massage, the house keeper Teresa Reveles told Oliveira to get out.

But on Sunday, Simmons said: 'I am not kidnapped. I am just in my house right now. No one should be worried about me. The people that surround me are wonderful people who take great care of me."

Oliveira accuses Reveles of using black magic or witch craft to control Simmons' life after the 'Sweatin' to the Oldies' workout guru suffered a chronic knee injury that is preventing him from teaching fitness classes, along with the death of his 17-year-old dog.