Sheinelle Jones Returns to ‘Today’ After Husband’s Death

TODAY show co-host Sheinelle Jones made an emotional return on September 5, 2025, breaking her silence about husband Uche Ojeh’s death from aggressive brain cancer.

Jones, 47, opened up for the first time publicly about losing her “college sweetheart” and husband of 17 years, who died in May at age 45 after battling glioblastoma. The couple had three children together: 16-year-old son Kayin and 13-year-old twins Clara and Uche.

Private Battle Behind Public Facade

The TODAY anchor revealed she had known about Ojeh’s diagnosis since fall 2023 but kept it private at his request. “Uche was fiercely private,” Jones explained during her sit-down interview with co-host Savannah Guthrie. “I chose the spotlight, but he did not. When he got this diagnosis, he asked me, ‘Please, I want to handle this privately.’”

For nearly a year, Jones continued working while secretly managing her husband’s treatment. “I would finish the show and then rush to be with him during his chemotherapy sessions,” she recounted. She took extended leave from the show in December 2024 after announcing a “family health matter.”

‘Beautiful Nightmare’ of Love and Loss

Jones described the experience as a “beautiful nightmare,” finding moments of connection amid tragedy. “We would just hold hands and the nurses would come in and they’d call us the ‘love birds,’” she recalled. “And we’d just look at each other and say, ‘I love you.’”

Despite the devastating diagnosis, Jones said she believed her husband would survive. “I knew it was going to be tough, but we all believed he was going to be fine,” she told Guthrie.

Moving Forward with Grief

Now raising three children alone, Jones said she’s learning to embrace grief rather than avoid it. “I don’t run away from crying anymore when it comes to grief. I see it as, ‘OK, here comes my cleansing rain,’” she explained.

She hopes her return to television can inspire others facing loss. “Cancer doesn’t have to steal our joy. We can get up, we can get out of bed, and we can go to work,” Jones said. “I feel like Uche’s heartbeat lives on in mine. So I owe it to him to just squeeze the most I can out of this thing.”

The couple would have celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary on September 1. Glioblastoma, the aggressive brain cancer that claimed Ojeh’s life, typically has a survival time of 15 months with treatment.