Richard Simmons is “perfectly fine,” a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department tells PEOPLE.

Detective Kevin Becker confirmed that the LAPD went to the fitness guru’s home for a welfare check, and said that any idea that Simmons is being held hostage is false.

“There was something about his housekeeper holding him hostage and not allowing people to see him and preventing him from making phone calls and it was all garbage and that’s why we went out to see him. None of it is true,” Becker says. “The fact of the matter is we went out and talked to him he is fine, nobody is holding him hostage. He is doing exactly what he wants to do. If he wants to go out in public or see anybody he will do that.”

“He is perfectly fine and he is very happy. I don’t know what he is going to do, but right now he is doing what he wants to do and it is his business.”

Becker adds that Simmons, who has not been seen outside of his home since Feb. 2014, was welcoming every time the LAPD stopped by.

“He was very nice. He was very cordial. He couldn’t have been nicer to us,” the detective says.

Becker’s statement echoes what Simmons’ longtime rep, Tom Estey, has said about him.

“He made a choice to take a break from public life, which he has the right to do,” Estey says. “People need to respect that and not surmise that there’s something wrong, when there’s nothing wrong.”

“For 40 years, he took care of everyone else but himself. And so it’s not that he’s being selfish, he’s just being a person, a regular person, taking care of himself.”

The home check comes just after the premiere of a new podcast called Missing Richard Simmons, where a former fitness client and friend of Simmons looks into his whereabouts.

In the podcast, Mauro Oliveira, a former assistant, masseuse and travel partner of Simmons, claimed that the fitness expert is being held hostage at home by his housekeeper, Teresa Reveles.

“Teresa has been working with him for, since I’ve been working with him . So, holding him hostage is the biggest . Teresa is the housekeeper, she’s the caretaker, she is extraordinary, she is amazing, she takes impeccable care of Richard and she has for as long as I have been working with Richard, so that is a complete load of crap,” Estey says.

Oliveira contacted the police to check on Simmons in Jan. 2015, alleging elder abuse, but the LAPD also reported that Simmons was fine at that time.