Sheinelle Jones will return to “Today” this Friday after a long hiatus following the death of Uche Ojeh, her husband of nearly 18 years, her co-hosts announced on the show Tuesday morning.
“We have some other great news that we’re very excited to share with you, and it involves a member of our own ‘Today’ family,” Craig Melvin said on the show Tuesday after the long Labor Day weekend.
“Yes, our beloved Sheinelle will be returning to the show,” said co-owner Savannah Guthrie. “She and her family have been through so much after the devastating loss of her husband, Uche.”
Ojeh died in May from an aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma, at the age of 45. Jones has not been on the NBC Morning Show since last December, when she excused herself to attend to “family health matters.” At the time, she did not publicly disclose what she was going through.
Guthrie explained Tuesday that she and Jones, who are co-hosts of “Today” for the third time, sat down for a pre-recorded interview that will take place on Friday.
“We shared a really personal conversation about how she has moved on and found strength in the last few months,” the host said. “She calls the experience a ‘beautiful nightmare.’ And she has thoughts about grief that are so moving.”
Ojeh married Jones in September 2007 after the two met in the 1990s at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She decided to act as a “fake tour guide,” she told her alma mater’s magazine in 2024.
“I told him I would take him around,” Jones said, “because he was nice.”
She is now raising their three children: son Cain, who just turned 16, and twins Clara and Uche, 13.
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain and spinal cord cancer, the Glioblastoma Foundation says, with current standards of care not helping much. According to the foundation, the median survival time for people who receive treatment is 15 months after diagnosis, compared with three to six months for those who don’t. While research into new treatments is promising, there is no cure, according to the Mayo Clinic.
