'General Hospital' Alum Richard Simmons: "I Am Not Kidnapped"

Richard Simmons

General Hospital alum Richard Simmons spoke to ET on Sunday, addressing recent reports about why he had not been seen in public in more than two years including a story in the New York Daily News titled "The Haunted Twilight of Richard Simmons."

"I am not kidnapped," the 67-year-old fitness guru told ET's executive producer, Brad Bessey, by phone. "I am just in my house right now."

"No one should be worried about me," Simmons said. "The people that surround me are wonderful people who take great care of me."

On Saturday, the New York Daily News published a long report citing on and off the record sources who expressed concern for Simmons' well-being.

Richard Simmons on GH in October 1980.

“We are very concerned," a friend of Simmons said. "I believe that something else is happening. I don’t think Richard is in there of his own volition.”

Simmons called the report "very hurtful."

"I love all the people who worry about me," Simmons said. "But it was time for me to take some time to be by myself. For the last 40 years I have been traveling, teaching classes, and I had a knee injury, so I had a knee replacement, which was very difficult for me… I have really just been taking it easy, staying at home, working out in my gym and doing the things I haven't done in a very long time."

Simmons last appeared on GH in 2013.

'ET' Sends Cameron Mathison to Interview Soap Opera Stars at the Soap Opera Digest 40th Anniversary Party (Video)

"I had the most preposterous, early '90s hair," Alison Sweeney told
ET's Cameron Mathison.

Earlier this week, ET reporter Cameron Mathison (ex-Ryan Lavery, All My Children) chatted with daytime stars at Soap Opera Digest's 40th anniversary celebration at the Argyle Hollywood on Wednesday. A few of the actors reminisced about their first time being featured on the cover of the magazine.

"My first cover was Marissa Tomei and I," said Christian Le Blanc (Michael Baldwin, The Young and the Restless; ex-Kirk McColl, As the World Turns). "Marissa Tomei was my girlfriend on As the World Turns. Julianne Moore was my second girlfriend!"

Mathison was able to catch up with some of his on-screen hookups at the party.

"We were married, like, twice," Melissa Claire Egan told Mathison, about Ryan and her All My Children character, Annie Lavery.

"I think we were married twice," Rebecca Budig, who played Greenlee Smythe on AMC, said.

"Engaged 18 times," Mathison quipped.

Watch the ET segment below, which also includes Eva LaRue (Maria Santos, All My Children), Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos, General Hospital), Finola Hughes (Anna Devane, General Hospital) and Alison Sweeney (ex-Sami Brady, Days of our Lives).