{"id":416547,"date":"2026-01-18T02:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416547\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T02:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:53:08","slug":"sheinelle-jones-brave-return-to-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416547\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheinelle Jones’ brave return to ‘Today’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cToday\u201d star Sheinelle Jones this week launched her new show with Jenna Bush Hager <\/a>with a bang \u2013 and guests including Oprah Winfrey.<\/p>\n

But she admits the idea of returning to work in the wake of husband Uche Ojeh\u2019s tragic death <\/a>from an aggressive brain cancer left her frozen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worried that I wouldn\u2019t know how to smile,\u201d she tells Page Six, \u201cI worried that I wouldn\u2019t know how to laugh. I love my job so much.\u00a0And I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what if it\u2019s not the same?\u2019 Because I\u2019ve never known this job without him.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Jones, 47, spent every waking moment by Uche\u2019s side in hospice before he passed away last May aged 45, just 18 months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma.<\/p>\n

Sheinelle Jones was left grief-stricken following the loss of her husband Uche Ojeh last May. Sheinelle Jones \/Instagram<\/p>\n

Jones and Ojeh had three children \u2013 Kayin, now 16, and twins Clara and Uche, now 13. Sheinelle Jones \/Instagram<\/p>\n

It never truly crossed her mind that he would not make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t believe me,\u201d she said, \u201cThe truth of the matter is, even in hospice, I kind of didn\u2019t believe it.\u00a0I know it defies logic, but I didn\u2019t see it coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t turn on the news. I didn\u2019t see TV. All I cared about was him and my three kids,\u201d she said, referring to son Kayin, 16, and twins Clara and Uche, 13.<\/p>\n

The couple met at Northwester University when Sheinelle gave her future husband a tour of the campus. They wed in 2007. sheinelle_o\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went into mama bear mode. I didn\u2019t care about myself. I wanted him to, every time he opened his eyes to see me, I wanted, anytime a doctor would come in that room, I wanted him to see me \u2013 nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Jones\u2019 co-star, Dylan Dreyer, who gently nudged her to leave work in January 2025 after weeks of ping-ponging between the studio and the hospital, only telling viewers she was dealing with a \u201cfamily health matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wore the same black leggings every day. I don\u2019t think my hair ever saw a brush,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Jones officially joined Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, launching their 10am \u201cToday\u201d show, \u201cJenna and Sheinelle\u201d. NBC<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a rotation of hoodies\u2026it almost felt like a different matrix. I would look sometimes at the nurses that would come in the middle of the night and help me, because at first I was doing everything. They were like, \u2018Why don\u2019t you be a wife and let us be nurses?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would see the nurses come in or the doctors \u2026 with such care and such humanity.\u00a0 And sometimes I would think, \u2018God, does the rest of the world know what\u2019s happening in this matrix, in these hospitals?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people deserve purple hearts. I mean, we honor our veterans, we honor our teachers. one day I\u2019m going to honor these folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oprah Winfrey was one of the first guests on \u201cJenna and Sheinelle\u201d, which launched this week. NBC<\/p>\n

There is no real cure for\u00a0glioblastoma, as Jones said, \u201cThey give you the diagnosis and then you\u2019re like, \u2018okay, we can do this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their friends who\u00a0were doctors cried. \u201cI still didn\u2019t take the hint because I just figured a breakthrough has to be coming. Let\u2019s just try to stay alive until they can come up with a breakthrough,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have little kids, so you want to live. And so I watched him. He was so brave. It is just we were determined\u2026 you go into this mode of nothing else matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones has been open about how hard it is now to be a single mom to her three kids, Kayin, Clara and Uche. Nathan Congleton\/NBC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jones explained glioblastoma is hard to treat, particularly as it is in the brain. While some people can have it removed, depending on where the cancer is and its severity, that\u2019s not always possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are helpless. All you can do is just trust. There\u2019s no phone call to make to get a drug, because there is no drug,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Jones met Uche when she was a freshman at Northwestern University and he was a high school senior visiting the campus. While she was not an official guide, she offered to show him around after he and his father asked her for directions because she thought he was \u201ccute\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jones returned to Studio 1A last September, four months after her husband\u2019s death. to reunite with her \u201cToday\u201d colleagues, Jenna Bush Hager, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer. NBC<\/p>\n

Eight years later, Uche proposed to her on the same campus and they married in Philadelphia in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think \u2018God,\u00a0did you know this was going to happen to me when I was walking down campus\u2019?\u201d, she said. \u201cI could have just stayed in my dorm room an extra 30 seconds and my whole world would\u2019ve been different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones landed her first job as a morning anchor and reporter at WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois, before a nine-year run at FOX\u2019s \u201cGood Day Philadelphia\u201d. She joined NBC in 2014.<\/p>\n

Jones ran the New York Marathon in November 2023 \u2013 and was greeted at the finish line with a kiss from Ojeh. sheinelle_o\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of mine just reminded me that Uche made my resume tape to get my job at NBC,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to do technology. He was a little techie. And I\u2019ve just never known life and television without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her time away from the show, she was supported by co-stars including Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin and Al Roker, who would all come to the hospital. She also took guidance from Maria Shriver, who recently lost her cousin, Tatiana Schlossberg, to cancer aged 35.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jones gava an emotional interview to her colleague Guthrie upon her TV return. NBC<\/p>\n

Although she \u201calways worried\u201d about returning to work, they stood by her.<\/p>\n

Although initially, \u201cI felt like I was in this metaphorical free fall,\u201d she admitted, \u201cThere was one day Savannah came up to the hospital and she said \u2018you need to get out of here\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously. It\u2019s like one of those things where you don\u2019t comb your hair, you\u2019re just in it. So, we went to this little restaurant around the corner from the hospital and had margaritas, and I said, \u2018You were my oxygen for the day, and sometimes I never know where my oxygen\u2019s going to come from.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Jones was embraced by Bush Hager when it was officially announced she was joining her as the \u2018forever friend\u2019 on the 10am hour back in December. NBC<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are both pretty spiritual and she talked about the story in the Bible about manna from heaven and she said, \u2018You may not know when you\u2019re going to get it, but I believe you\u2019re going to get a little bit of manna every day.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you wake up in the morning and you\u2019re going to feel like you can\u2019t get out of bed, but just know somehow you\u2019re going to get a little manna every day. And that has been true every single day\u2019.<\/p>\n

Jones describes her husband of 17 years as a \u201crenaissance man\u201d as well as a keen soccer player and guitarist.<\/p>\n

Jones is infamous for her Halloween costumes \u2013 and dressed up as Beyonce in October. MediaPunch \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

She returned to NBC Studio 1A <\/a>last September, appearing on the main show and back to her regular duties as co-host of the third hour with Dreyer, Melvin and Roker.<\/p>\n

She has also stood in as main anchor for Guthrie, who is recovering after vocal surgery.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jones has now left her 9am hour show, which she co-hosted with Roker, Melvin and Dreyer. Nathan Congleton\/NBC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Bush Hager, meanwhile, had been hosting the 10am hour with a revolving cast of \u2018friends\u2019, since the departure of her co-host, Hoda Kotb<\/a>, in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Although rumors abounded Jones would be perfect, the journalist said, \u201cI\u2019m a single mom now with three kids. It\u2019s weird to even say it, and I am trying to get my sea legs again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things moved quickly. When bosses officially offered Jones the gig last month, it was Thursday, December 4 \u2013 and they announced the news live on air<\/a> the following Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jones posed with Ojeh and her kids after running the marathon. Nathan Congleton\/NBC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cJenna and Sheinelle\u201d debuted this past Monday and she said, \u201cIt\u2019s an out of body experience, and the little girl in me and the woman who has had a tough 18 to 24 months is watching everything that\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in November 2023, Jones ran the New York Marathon, greeted at the end with a kiss from Uche.<\/p>\n

But her grief is still constant. \u201cLittle did I know I was preparing me for the biggest marathon it of life,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I remember when I was running towards mile 23 and the roar of the crowd, it literally feels like it\u2019s carrying your feet. Your muscles don\u2019t have anything left, and it\u2019s the signs and strangers who don\u2019t even know you.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you look at the sign and it\u2019s like, \u2018you got this\u2019 and you think it\u2019s for you. Right? It carries you through. That is what the support I have received has felt like for me.<\/p>\n

For now, her kids are the most important thing, and she wants to start raising awareness about\u00a0glioblastoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy raising awareness about it, you\u2019re putting it out in the public lexicon,\u201d she said. \u201cYou just hope, we didn\u2019t find a cure in time for Uche, but maybe we can find it for the next person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cToday\u201d star Sheinelle Jones this week launched her new show with Jenna Bush Hager with a bang \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,5782,362,75,29270,7817,50922,174933,26913,348],"class_list":["post-416547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-jenna-bush-hager","tag-nbc","tag-savannah-guthrie","tag-sheinelle-jones","tag-today-show","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}