Katie Couric understands the pain that Today cohost Sheinelle Jones is enduring following the death of her husband, Uche Ojeh.
“With profound sadness, we share this morning that Uche Ojeh, the husband of our dear friend and Today cohost Sheinelle Jones has passed away after a courageous battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma,” Savannah Guthrie announced on the show on May 23. “There are no words for the pain that we feel for Sheinelle and their three young children. Uche was an incredible person. We all loved him.” (The couple shared son Kayin, 15, and twins Clara and Uche, 12.)
Couric, who cohosted Today from 1991 to 2006, also lost her first husband, Jay Monahan, to cancer in the late 1990s. (Couric and Mohahan married in 1989 and went on to welcome two daughters, Carrie and Ellie, before his death at the age of 42.)
“I did everything I could to keep Jay alive,” Couric wrote in her memoir Going There. “Looking back, I wish I had done a better job helping him die.”
In the aftermath of Jones’ loss and as Couric and more current and former Today hosts and anchors give their heartfelt well wishes and support, here’s a look back at Couric’s own family tragedy and how she found a way to turn her pain into power.
Her first husband Jay Monahan was diagnosed in 1997
Monahan was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in April 1997. Couric opened up about the months that followed in an essay for Option B, an organization that provides practical support for people who have suffered a loss, in November 2018.
“Nearly twenty years later, when I think of that Thanksgiving, it makes me cry. My healthy, handsome, athletic husband—the college football and lacrosse player—had become thin and gaunt, but was still impeccably dressed, with a tweed sports coat beneath a quilted Barbour jacket and brown leather lace-up shoes,” Couric wrote at the time.
Katie praised Jay Monahan’s courage
In an interview with People published in 2021, Couric looked back on her first husband’s bravery as he faced the outcome of his diagnosis head-on.
“I was so worried about letting go of hope, because I didn’t want Jay to spend whatever time he had left just waiting to die,” she said. “I think it takes extraordinary courage to be able to face death, and I think I was too scared, honestly.”
She used her husband’s passing to help others
Couric established the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance in 2000, two years after Monahan’s death. The organization has raised at least $800 million for cancer research since it was founded.
As a host on the Today show, Couric opted to air her own colonoscopy to shed light on the importance of the procedure — an act that resulted in a 20% increase in adults undergoing their own.
She got engaged to John Molner in 2013
Couric said her daughters were surprised when she and second husband Molner got engaged in 2013. “I think they were a little [like] ‘Wow,’ because it’s been the three of us for so long,” Couric explained to Access Hollywood.
“They really think the world of John,” she also shared. “He loves them and so I think it’s all good and I think it’s going to be a while. And I’m focused on Carrie right now and her senior year of high school.”
Couric says her grandson reminds her of Monahan
Couric’s first grandchild was born March 2024 and named after Monahan.
“John Albert Dobrosky was born on his due date, Saturday, March 23rd at 8:23 am, just shy of seven pounds,” Couric captioned Instagram hospital pics of daughter Ellie, and her husband, Mark Dobrosky, holding their newborn. “He will be called Jay in honor of his maternal grandfather.”
In March 2025 she told Us Weekly, “When Ellie gets married or has a baby, or Carrie is going to get her PhD this fall, you know, I always think of how proud he would be of them. So, we think about him a lot.”
Baby Jay’s name was something that came as a surprise to Couric. “I was pulling for Katie. We didn’t know whether she was having a boy or a girl,” the TV personality joked. “I think [Ellie] was thinking of Jay, but it was a surprise. And his name is John Albert — Albert after Mark’s grandfather and Jay after Ellie’s dad. So, it’s a very meaningful and special name. And he’s super cute, obviously.”
Couric was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2022, sending her on her own cancer journey and adding another layer to her ongoing cancer research and treatment advocacy.
“June 21, 2022, was the first day of summer, my 8th wedding anniversary, and the day I found out I had breast cancer,” she wrote in an essay for her Katie Couric Media website in September 2022.
A month later, Couric revealed she was feeling “just fine” following the news.
“I just feel super lucky that it was diagnosed when it was, that I went, even though I was late, that I went when I did,” she explained, crediting her radiologist with helping her figure out what to do right away. “I was pretty stunned, and I think those words — ‘it’s cancerous’ or ‘you have cancer’ — do stop you in their tracks, but she told me it was treatable. We needed to have a plan.”
Couric shared an update in 2023 and announced she was cancer-free. She told People, “I was very fortunate. My cancer was caught very, very early when it’s most treatable, and if I can just be an advertisement for people to get screened, to get their mammography done, to talk to their doctors, and if they have dense breasts, to get additional screening.”
