Almost a year after the death of Sheinelle Jones' husband of 17 years, Uche, the Today Show host has bravely spoken of how the last 12 months have changed her and their three children.
"I'm stronger than I could have ever imagined. I’m almost so strong it scares me sometimes," Sheinelle shared with her co-host Jenna Bush Hager on April 17, admitting that she called herself a "tough cookie" after being taught to show strength from a young age by her mom.
© Getty Images"Every time I got in trouble, we had to talk about it,” she recalled of being disciplined as a child. "She would say, 'We have to be tough.'"
As a teenager, Sheinelle would tell herself to wait and process emotions in private, but admitted that as she helped her children grieve she realised she had to learn "to be a lot more vulnerable".
"I have to reel that in, because it can come across as insensitive, and I don’t want to be that," she explained.
Uche Ojeh died at the age of 45 from an aggressive form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma.
Today co-anchors Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Carson Daly, Dylan Dreyer, and Jenna Bush Hager gathered around the studio during the live broadcast to deliver the tragic update, and mother-of-three Sheinelle later took to Instagram to share an update on the "heartbreaking" news.
© GC Images"There are no words for the pain that we feel for Sheinelle and their three young children," said Savannah. "Uche was an incredible person. We all loved him. We just want to say Sheinelle, Kayin, Uche and Clara and the Ojeh family: we are with you, we love you. You are our family, and we're just sending all of our love to you right now."
"He loved those kids more than anything else in this world, and was just so proud," added Craig. "He was that dad that was on the sideline of every soccer game. He was at all of the concerts and the recitals. He was that guy."
Uche and Sheinelle were married for 18 years and share three children – son Kayin, 15, and fraternal twins Clara and Uche, 12.
Sheinelle told Jenna that she is "still grieving Uche" but gave herself "two days off to celebrate who I was".
"Because I really liked her," she added. "She got me here. She dreamed of having this chair. She got herself to Philly. She works so hard. She has her friends. She has her family. I want to celebrate her, because she’s different."
Sheinelle was raised in Kansas, but returned to Philadelphia to work at a local NBC affiliate and joined Today in 2014 on the Weekend desk. She now co-hosts the fourth hour as of January 2026.
