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Why Sheinelle Jones Has Been So Candid About Her Grief After Uche Ojeh’s Death
Everyone knows about work wives, those trusted colleagues that makes the eight-hour office day just a little easier.
But for Sheinelle Jones, her colleagues on Today—including Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, Al Roker and Craig Melvin—are truly family. And that bond was never more on display than when Sheinelle’s husband Uche Ojeh was fighting glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, for 18 months before his death in May 2025.
“When my husband was sick, they were my family,” Sheinelle told E! News in an exclusive interview. “Al was bringing breakfast sandwiches into hospice for us, Savannah was right with us after the first surgery.”
She emphasized, the bond people see on TV, “It's not just pretend.”
And while that bond between the morning show’s anchors can be felt through the screen, Sheinelle—who is mom to three kids with Uche—stressed how much of that love is felt behind closed doors.
“We do it when no one's watching,” she said, pointing out that publicly, “nobody knew what I was going through—they all knew. Every day I was never alone. They were always there helping the kids, helping me with dinner.”
That love and support also extends to the entire Today family. As she put it, “When it's time to rally around each other, we do it.”
The 48-year-old is also aware that the close bond is unique—and she’s eternally grateful.
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
“There are movies all about morning shows and all the drama and all the things,” she said. “What I know to be true is ours is for real. In the TV business, sometimes you move to these cities where you don't know anybody or you may not have any family—when you say work family, we really are a family.”
And that community mentality extends to the viewers, who have quickly rallied around Sheinelle's new book, Through Mom’s Eyes: Simple Wisdom From Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans. In fact, the public reception to Through Mom’s Eyes since it hit bookstores on April 14 has been beyond Sheinelle’s “wildest dreams."
“I have been in every city, and people write cards and letters,” she said of her book tour. “And the other night I sat down and I opened them up last night and I read them. They meant a lot to me.”
Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
She continued, “Reading some of the letters allowed me to receive. Like as much joy as I'm trying to bring, they're giving it back to me. Whatever the strength is that I'm exuding, they're giving it back to me with some of the things that they're saying. And so, it has become this beautiful dance.”
Because more than anything, Sheinelle wanted to foster connection and community.
“The amount of folks who come up to me, whether they're a mom or maybe they're a widow or maybe they're a single mom or maybe they went to Northwestern like I did, you know, all the boxes—it's this fellowship,” she said. " In the book, I say, ‘Welcome to the biggest mom village.' I really believe it. I just want whoever's reading it to not feel alone."
Through Mom’s Eyes is available for purchase now.
For more of the Today show family’s sweetest moments, read on.
Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Sheinelle Jones
The cohost of the fourth hour of Today shares son Kayin as well as twins Uche and Clara with her late husband Uche Ojeh, who passed away in May 2025 after a courageous battle with brain cancer.
“With all three of my children, I try to show them that they're ALL a team, and they have to take care of each other," Sheinelle wrote in a 2015 essay for Today. “At the same time, I'm learning that they each like to know they're special on their own."
Craig Melvin / Instagram
Craig Melvin
Three years after the anchor married fellow broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak in 2011, he earned his most cherished title yet: father.
And now, he seizes every opportunity to gush about their son Delano and daughter Sybil.
"When I wake up in the morning," Melvin said to his son during a May 2024 episode of Today, "part of the reason I work so hard is for you and your sister."
Jenna Bush Hager / Instagram
Jenna Bush Hager
The Today with Jenna & Sheinelle cohost and her husband Henry Hager are proud parents to kids Mila, Poppy and Hal.
As she put it during a March 2025 episode of the morning show, “I’m pretty sure I’ve come to terms that three, even though it’s an imperfect number, it’s the perfect number for our household."
Hoda Kotb
"Another Halloween in the books," wrote the former host as she celebrated the day with her daughter Haley Joy.
She is also mom to daughter Hope Catherine.
Lester Holt / Instagram
Lester Holt
The former NBC Nightly News anchor shares sons Stefan Holt and Cameron Holt with his wife Carol Hagen.
But more recently, he became a proud "granddude" to three grandchildren: Henry, Samuel and James.
“When my daughter-in-law was pregnant with her first baby ... she said, ‘Well, what do you guys want to be called?’" Holt said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2021. "I said, ‘I think I want to be ‘Granddude’ because ‘grand,’ it bows to the fact that I’m older. But ‘dude’ says, ‘I still got a little bit. I still got a little,’ you know?"
Carson Daly
In 2020, the anchor and his wife Siri Pinter welcomed their fourth child, Goldie. The little one joined the couple's older kids Jackson, Etta and London.
Steve Mack/Getty Images
Kathie Lee
Hoda's former cohost is a loving mommy to her own two children, Cassidy Gifford and Cody Gifford, with her late husband Frank Gifford.
Savannah Guthrie
The TV personality is a mom to two little ones, Vale Guthrie Feldman and Charles "Charley" Max Feldman, with her husband Mike Feldman.
Noam Galai/WireImage
Al Roker
The anchor and his wife Deborah Roberts are parents to Leila Roker and Nicholas Albert Roker.
Paul Zimmerman/WireImage
Willie Geist
The anchor of Sunday Today has been married to his wife Christina Geist since 2003. They're parents to two children, George William Geist and Lucie Joy Geist.
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