Anika Rashaun, a TV personality who appeared on both The Real Worldand The Challenge,recently passed away following a battle with breast cancer. She was 34 years old.
Rashaun appeared on MTV’s The Real World Seattle: Bad Bloodin 2016. She then participated in The Challenge: Invasion of the Championsthe following year. She died on Oct. 1.
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The TV personality was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in mid-2025. Her friend Tiara Ramos called the diagnosis “shocking” while announcing Rashaun’s passing in a Substack post. The longtime friends were diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks apart.
“Despite her mother having breast cancer years earlier, she was never identified as high-risk or told by her doctors to prioritize mammograms,” Ramos shared in the Oct. 6 post. “That was one of the many failures she experienced within the medical system during her time battling cancer.”
The duo has been friends for more than two decades. They even moved to Thailand without knowing anyone and appeared together on reality TV twice.
While honoring her best friend, Ramos said that Rashaun was part of her life longer than she wasn’t. “She was my mirror: the good, the bad, the ugly, the real ugly. She wasn’t just my friend. She my other half. If you knew me, you knew her.”
“She loved life. She lived life,” Ramos continued. “She experienced things others could only dream of. She had stories, memories, and moments you would never believe.”
Rashaun’s longtime friend said she was angry, heartbroken, and devastated over the TV personality’s passing. “I’ve had millions of conversations with Anika over these past 20-plus years, but never this one,” she noted. “For Anika, I will love without limits, fly without fear, make more spontaneous decisions, and, most importantly, stop at nothing to help find a cure for breast cancer. To my sister, my secret keeper, my better half: I have no words. I don’t know if I ever will.”
Rashaun is preceded in death by her mom, who also died of breast cancer when the MTV personality was 16 years old.
While speaking about Rashaun’s breast cancer battle, Ramos told PEOPLE that her longtime friend was diagnosed after she began experiencing intense back pain.
“She went to physical therapy to try to figure out what was going on and then eventually advocated for herself to get an MRI when her X-rays didn’t show anything suspicious,” Ramos recalled. “Once she received the MRI, she learned that she had breast cancer that had traveled to her [spine] and caused fractures in her back.”
Rashaun’s friend further explained, “Just a few months prior, she was dancing and enjoying life at her engagement party and then suddenly she was in a wheelchair and learning how to walk again.”
Despite her own cancer battle, Rashaun was by Ramos’ side after her diagnosis.
“Anika was by my side through it all,” Ramos continued. “She encouraged me to request an MRI to make sure my cancer hadn’t spread, helped me prepare questions for my oncologist and reminded me that I wasn’t navigating this alone.”
Ramos went on to add, “Our cancer journeys fueled us to start a podcast, Breast Friends Forever, to share our stories and make sure other young women advocated for themselves and understood their risk.”
Rashaun is survived by her husband, Kyle Rehn, whom she married on Valentine’s Day 2026.
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