today host Sheinelle Jones is opening up about navigating the loss of a husband Ojeh’s mind.
“I never once thought I was going to lose him,” Jones, 47, said people in an interview published on Wednesday, January 14. “When you’re a woman of faith, you realize you’re praying for an outcome and then if the outcome doesn’t come, what?”
Jones’ perspective changed after Ojeh’s death.
“And that’s when I really had to dig deep and realize that maybe I don’t fully understand it,” she noted of her faith. “I know God loves me and I know God loves (Uche) and I know God loves my children and our families, so why is this happening?”
She continued, “I don’t know if I have the answer yet, but I have a peace that passes all understanding. That’s a Bible verse. It doesn’t mean it’s easier. It doesn’t mean my pain isn’t excruciating.”
Jones became a fixture on our TV screens after becoming one of the presenters of the third hour of Today. It went on hiatus in early 2025, which caused concern among viewers.
“I sincerely thank everyone who has reached out to me while I’ve been away from the show,” she wrote on Instagram in January 2025. “I’m so lucky to have the support of not only my family on the show today, but all of you. Your kindness means a lot to me. See you soon.”
Months after Jones’ long absencehis cohosts Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Carson DalyDreyer i Jenna Bush Hager announced her husband’s death in May 2025 after a private battle with cancer.
“I don’t even think I’ve fully understood what it would feel like not to have him,” Jones told People of how she’s gone through the various stages of grief with her children — son Kayin, 16, and twins Clara and Uche Jr, both 13.
Jones remembered it all today family standing by his side in the midst of great loss. Before Ojeh’s death, Roker, 71, delivered breakfast sandwiches to the hospice and Melvin, 46, visited Ojeh often. Guthrie and Hoda Kotb brought gift baskets and devotional books to the hospital as Dreyer encouraged Jones to stay away from the show to focus on his family.
“My kids lost their dad at 13 and 16, but I try to tell them that they got more in those years than some people get in a lifetime,” Jones told People about how her children carry their father’s legacy “not with pain, but with power.”
She added: “It hurts that this (loss) happened to me, but it’s unbearable that it happened to my children. As a mother, you just want to protect them from everything. That was the first thing that I couldn’t fix.”
Jones has now focused on her children and her career. After the departure of Kotb todayJones was announced as Hager’s new cohost activated Today with Jenna and Sheinelle.
“So when Hoda announced that she was leaving, Uche always felt like, when we were in college, ‘Oh, you should do a show.’ She just felt like she should do it, and I used to be like, ‘Ugh, whatever,'” Jones shared on the Monday, Jan. 12 episode of the show. But I could talk to him and he would send me emojis and stuff like that, and that would be how we would talk. And so I’ll show you a picture of the text I just found from Uche from 2024.”
A message from Uche was shown where he sent thumbs up and fingers crossed in response to an article on Kotb Today’s departure.
“He felt like it was my turn to shine and try… And that was almost two years ago,” Jones recalled while getting emotional. “What you don’t see is that I didn’t respond to that … it didn’t even register for me … And so now, it feels like confirmation, because here we are two years later.”